Originating in Ohio in 1856, the introduction of the faster- developing ferrotype (tintype) process allowed for the wider dissemination of photography. With images fixed on thin sheets of lacquered iron, the new medium soon proliferated. The inexpensive tintype, as it came to be called, first became popular during the Civil War and later extended to photo booths at carnivals and fairs. Little is known about Sarah Heap Ashton, other than that she was the wife of Cincinnati textile artist William Ashton represented in the daguerreotype to the left.
