Tintype of Kunigunda "Mary" Ostien
While many descendents of Kuningunda Ostien have pictures of
her dating to the 1910s and 1920s, we only know of one image
that is believed to be her prior to 1900. This painted tintype
below was probably produced around 1870 in Pittsburgh, PA.
Kunigunda Lichauer was born in 1847 in the town of Mistelbach in
what was then known as Bavaria, now a part of Germany. While
we do not yet know the circumstances of her arrival here in
the United States, we know she married Henry Ostien in 1869
in Braddock, PA.
This artifact is a painted tintype. Tintypes are black-and-white
images developed directly on a metal substrate, typically steel
that is varnished to reduce corrosion. However, often artists
would offer a service in which they would paint over a tintype to
add color, jewelry, and other embellishments or changes.
Typically the artists had a catalogue that showed different
possible backgrounds or styles the customer could request.
The reverse of this tintype shows the artist's name as well
as a number indicating the requested style, in this case
"Pickart 12".
There are several reasons why we believe that this image
represents Kunigunda Ostien (nee Lichauer):
- the date for the subject is correct. Kunigunda would have
been about 23 in 1870, a peak year for tintypes in the U.S.,
and the subject looks to be in her early twenties.
- the bun in her hair can be seen not only in the tintype, but
also in every other image of Kunigunda we have ever seen.
- I was told that my grandmother Marie Margaret Roolf, who
was the youngest child of the oldest daughter of Kunigunda, had
said that it was her grandmother.
I also took this tintype to the
Photo Antiquities Museum,
in Pittsburgh,
which houses a large collection of 19th-century photographic images.
Their curator, Frank Watters, examined it and said that he thought the
tintype was either produced in the 1870s, but it could also have been
made as a reproduction of another photo around 1900. He suggested the
possibility of the latter since he thought that the image was not quite
as crisp as you would typically see on an original tintype. In either
case, he said that the hair style shown in the picture was very popular
in the 1870s, which helps confirm the identification as Kunigunda.
You can compare the early tintype with a later photograph below.
Kunigunda was in her early twenties in the left photo, and
in her mid-70s at right.
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Brian Mathewson |
Courtesy of Henry C. Ostien
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Note that this is the only image we are aware of that was taken
prior to 1900 of any of the first generation of Ostiens in the U.S.
For more information see the
Ostien - Lichauer page.
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