Invented in 1856 as an affordable alternative to the daguerreotype, tintypes enjoyed immense popularity due to the process’s short exposure time, durability, and inexpensive cost. With prices ranging from 15 to 25 cents, tintypes expanded the accessibility of portraiture for the working class. They were a particularly important medium for African Americans. Self-representation through photography offered African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the opportunity to assert new social and political identities that served as an alternative to the mass circulation of racist and derogatory depictions in music, theater, and art.