The group's first goal was to unite against Ambrotype patent restrictions. The ambrotype was introduced in the 1850s. This imparted a touch of "culture" to the sitter, hence the many tintype, ambrotype, etc. But in 2010 a tinted sixth plate ambrotype portrait of Taylor surfaced. By the late 1850s, the ambrotype was overtaking the daguerreotype in popularity. The ambrotype was based on the wet plate collodion process invented by Frederick Scott Archer. The ambrotype was the first use of the wet-plate collodion process as a positive image.