By the 1860s in America, daguerreotypes had largely been replaced by simpler and cheaper—if also less magical—ambrotypes and tintypes (one-of-a-kind photographic images on black-backed glass plates or iron sheets). In this ambrotype made on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, one Union soldier took home not only a view of the spectacular falls and a memory of the misty air and roaring sound, but also the undeniable proof that he and his comrades had been there together.