Cartes de Visite

The fashion for leaving a photograph when one called seems to have emerged with a vengeance in the 1870s, and died out sometime in the 1890s. The American Museum of Photography offers a brief history, and a page on the studio cameras is worth a look too. Says the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich: "The carte de visite was the first popular form of portrait photography. These small, cheap prints were the result of a new development in photographic technology which meant images could be mass produced for the first time."

At their best, cartes de visite offer very clear images, much more lifelike than the similarly-sized tintypes, probably due to the shorter exposure times. Subjects seem to be able to compose themselves into a less frozen 'portrait' stance.

 

Most of the examples from my Nova Scotia collection include the photographer's name and location, and the cartes served as an advertising medium:
cartes de visite
visite1c.jpg

 

Most are pretty formulaic, either head-and-shoulders or standing, often in an oval frame:
visite2b.jpg (more detail)

carte de visite
On back: Photographs of likenesses of deceased friends copied, enlarged and framed

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

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carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

one of Nature's Bachelors?

visite28a

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite

carte de visite