The Carte-de-Visite

Nineteenth Century Portraiture

This carte-de-visite (or just carte or CDV) of a rather handsome young couple was, based on the information on the back of the card, done by the Tyler studio, Easton, PA. The hand-cancelled revenue stamp dates the photo to 1864–1866.¹ It is a completely typical civil-war era CDV.

The CDV, a 2⅛ × 3½" albumen print mounted on a 2½ × 4" card, along with the larger cabinet card (a 4 × 5½" print on a 4¼ × 6½" card) were the most popular portrait formats of the 19th century.

The carte-de-visite, or calling card, was an essential part of Victorian social etiquette. The cards, which originally displayed simply an engraved or calligraphic name, became increasing more complex and decorative; so by the mid-19th century it wasn’t much of a jump to include a photograph on the card. Exactly who though of this first is unknown, perhaps Louis Dodero or E. Delessert, but the credit would go to Andre Disdéri.

Self-portrait of and by Disdéri

Andre Adolphe Eugene Disdéri (28 Mar 1819 – 4 Oct 1889) started as a daguerreian in Brest in 1848 and by 1852 had a studio in Paris. On 27 Nov 1854, he applied for a patent for a process where eight 6 × 9 cm images could be shot on a single full size wet plate.² Disdéri’s process, obviously, greatly reduced cost and soon the popularity of the CDV spread; first throughout France, then England (1857) and America (1860). Their popularity made Disdéri a rather wealthy and renowned photographer and at one point he had studios in Paris, Toulon, Madrid and London.³

Victorian families would collect CDVs of friends and family, and after John Mayall mass-produced images of the Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, of famous persons and celebrities. Collecting cards became so popular, both in Europe and America, that the term “cardomania” was coined to describe it. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in 1863: “Card portraits, as everybody knows, have become the social currency, the ‘green-backs’ of civilization.”

According to the handwritten notation the young lass to your left is Hannah Cook of Washington, PA.

In 1866 the London studio of Windsor & Bridge announced a larger card photograph, which would be known as the cabinet card. The cabinet card, or just cabinet (named after the drawing-room cabinet where they were displayed in an appropriately appointed Victorian home), was four times the size of the CDV (two negatives on a full-sized plate). This larger format quickly supplanted the CDV and was the most common format for the rest of the century.

The cabinets, like the CDVs, were well-suited to mass-produced images of actors, actresses, politicians, royalty, or the otherwise famous and nearly famous (and some of this was discussed previously).

Bride Kavanaugh in Glen-da-Laugh

Mark Twain (left) and Edwin Booth as Hamlet⁴

By the turn of the century the celebrity cabinet was largely replaced by newspaper halftones or magazine chromolithographs and the family portrait was replaced by the new inexpensive snapshot photograph.

1. As part of the Revenue Act of 1864 Congress passed a law adding a new tax on all “photographs, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes or any other sun-pictures,” This tax, to help fund the war, was in effect from 1 Aug 1864 – 1 Aug 1866. In addition to photographs, alcohol, tobacco, matches, perfume, Playing Cards, Bank Checks, Certificates, Bill of Lading, etc were taxed. Some of these revenue stamps have some philatelic value (although, sadly, not the one shown here)

2. “Pour des perfectionnements en photographie, notamment appliqué aux cartes de visite, portraits, monuments, etc.” Disdéri is also credited with inventing the twin-lens reflex camera.

3. Of course, it never ends this way, does it? By the end of his life Disdéri was a penniless, and nearly blind, beach photographer in Nice.

4. Edwin Thomas Booth (13 Nov 1833 – 7 Jun 1893) began his career in theater playing opposite his father, the the mad tragedian Junius Brutus Booth. By the 1860s Edwin was performing Shakespearian productions, including Hamlet, Othello and the Merchant of Venice that were “of unexampled magnificence and melancholy refinement.” In 1863 he performed Hamlet for a record-setting 100 consecutive nights. At the peak of his career his younger brother, John Wilkes, himself an actor, gained a modicum of notoriety by asassinating President Lincoln. Edwin intended to retire from the stage but found that his audience welcomed him back and for the rest of his life he performed Shakespeare both the the US and Europe.

12 Dec 2009 ‧ Photography