As we begin the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War starting in 2011, and ending in 2015, We at OldPhotographic thought it might be a good time to talk about collecting antique photographs of the Civil War.

Believe it or not, there are many types of Civil War photographs ranging from Ambrotypes to Cabinet photos, to CDV's (Carte de Visite's), to Salt prints, to tintypes, which present the beginning Civil War photography collector with a wide range of selections to choose from, but in this article we will concentrate on the three main types of images that most Civil War photography collectors gravitate towards; Ambrotypes, CDV's, and Tintypes.