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Carte-de-visite
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Gardner, Alexander: Booth, John Wilkes Julia Grant André-Adolphe-EugÚne Disdéri: Uncut print from a carte-de-visite negative John Stuart Mill
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Gardner, Alexander: Booth, John Wilkes
Gardner, Alexander: Booth, John Wilkes John Wilkes Booth, albumen carte-de-visite, photograph by Alexander Gardner, 1865; in the collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Carte-de-visite

photography
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‱History

Carte-de-visite, originally, a calling card, especially one with a photographic portrait mounted on it. Immensely popular in the mid-19th century, the carte-de-visite was touted by the Parisian portrait photographer AndrĂ©-Adolphe-EugĂšne DisdĂ©ri, who patented the method in 1854. DisdĂ©ri used a four-lensed camera, which made eight 3.5 × 2.5-inch (8.89  × 6.35-cm) negatives on one full-sized plate. The large print made from that plate was cut up into small portraits, which were separately mounted on cards measuring about 4 × 3 inches (10  × 7.6 cm). These cards were inexpensive relative to other forms of portraiture, as eight different poses could be made at one sitting and the images required no retouching.

Julia Grant
Julia GrantFirst lady Julia Grant, photograph on carte-de-visite mount by Mathew B. Brady, c. 1870–80; in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Cartes-de-visite became a fad and were commonly exchanged on birthdays and holidays; the carte-de-visite album became a common feature of Victorian parlours in Europe and the United States. During the American Civil War, Mathew B. Brady and other photographers did a booming business in them in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The fashion for cartes-de-visite peaked in the 1860s. The cartes of celebrities and royalty remain collectors’ items.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Naomi Blumberg.