Prints by decade, 1860s to 1990s

Prints from the 1860s show stiff, formal poses held for seconds, warm brown albumen tones, painted studio backdrops and a hand resting on a chair or a column for steadiness.

The 1870s brought slightly more relaxed studio portraits, the arrival of the cabinet card, elaborate props and backdrops, and the first gelatin dry plates at the very end of the decade.

In the 1880s dry plates and faster shutters let people hold a natural expression for the first time, and cabinet cards with gilt edges and ornate studio imprints filled the parlour.

The 1890s are where amateur snapshots begin: round and then rectangular Kodak prints of picnics, porches and bicycles, alongside the last formal cabinet cards.

The 1900s are the Brownie decade: 2.25 in square snapshots, real photo postcards mailed across the country, and formal portraits still made on mounted card.

The 1910s left wartime and immigration portraits, sepia-toned studio prints in paper folders, and small snapshots with deckled edges beginning to appear.

The 1920s produced small contact prints with white borders and deckled edges, long panoramic school and group photos, and soft-focus pictorial portraits.

The 1930s gave families Depression-era snapshots on textured or silk-finish paper, 616 and 620 roll film, and from 1936 the first Kodachrome slides.

The 1940s are wartime prints with white borders, tiny wallet photos of servicemen, V-mail, and hand-colored studio portraits with pink cheeks.

The 1950s put Kodacolor and Ektacolor prints in family hands, made slide evenings with Kodachrome a ritual, and kept square black-and-white snapshots with scalloped edges going.

The 1960s belong to the Instamatic: square 126 prints, Polaroid pack film, brighter color, and the last generation of black-and-white family snapshots.

The 1970s are rounded-corner square prints with the warm golden cast of the decade's paper, SX-70 Polaroids, 110 pocket cameras and the first magnetic albums.

The 1980s are 4 x 6 one-hour prints with glossy finishes, on-camera flash red-eye in every indoor shot, 600-series Polaroids and disc cameras.

The 1990s are disposable cameras, orange date stamps in the corner, APS film and the last decade before digital took over the family album.