Figure 1.--These three boys are presumaby brothers although they are unidntified. We do know tht the portrait was taken in 1890. The boys look to be about 2-13 years old. The boys' outfits are notable for the minimal Fauntleroy items. The cabinet card became the dominanht American photographic fornat in the 1870s. This portrait was taken in 1890. Note the rustic seting and difuse background. The studio was H. Davis in Cadiz, O. We think that means Ohio.

Albumen prints were developed by British and French experimenters. The most important was Englhman William Henry Fox Talbot (1839). It was not until Frenchman Louis D�sir� Blanquart-Evrard improved on Fox's paper that the process became commercially vaiable (1850). By mid century the technical aspects were in place. And the process had vreal advantages. It was negative based process many multiple prints could be made. The major problem was that the prints were very fragil. So the process was not an immeduate success. This change when the idea of mounting the prints began. The first mounted card was the CDV which appeared in France (mid-1950s). They were not initially very popular, The idea of mounting them on card stock solved the problem of fagility. And then suddently after portraits of Emperor Napolon III were made available, card mania began in France and quickly crossed the Atlantic. The first albumen prints were CDVs. There may have been American CDVs in the very late-1850s, but if so they are very rare. We see CDVs appearing bin lrge numbers in the early-60s. They quickly reolaces Dags and Ambros. This was followed by the cabinet card which also used albumen prints (1866). Unlike Europe the cabknet card rapidly relaced CDVs. The CDV did not disappear, but American consumers clearly preferred the larger cabinet card. Cabinet cards were fairly standard in size and formt until the turn-of-the 20th century. Then we begin to see many different sizes and formats.

History

Albumen prints were developed by British and French experimenters. The most important was Englhman William Henry Fox Talbot (1839). It was not until Frenchman Louis D�sir� Blanquart-Evrard improved on Fox's paper that the process became commercially vaiable (1850). By mid century the technical aspects were in place. And the process had vreal advantages. It was negative based process many multiple prints could be made. The major problem was that the prints were very fragil. So the process was not an immeduate success. This change when the idea of mounting the prints began. The first mounted card was the CDV which appeared in France (mid-1950s). They were not initially very popular, The idea of mounting them on card stock solved the problem of fagility. And then suddently after portraits of Emperor Napolon III were made available, card mania began in France and quickly crossed the Atlantic. The first albumen prints were CDVs. Cabinet cards followed a few years later ofering a larger image. It was an immediate succes in America, but took longer to catch on in Europe.

Portraits

The albumen process was primarily used for studio portraits. The process was too expensive and complicated for the general public. The negatives used to produce albumen prints did not have to be exposed in studios, but this is is where the vast majority were exposed. There were two reasons for this. First, was economics of the industry. People wanted portrits of themselves and family and were prepared tp pay for it. Now other portraits might be sold, but it was studio photography where the money was. And photographs could not until the late-1890s be ctually printed in newspapers, magazines, and books. Second, the cameras were still a bulky piece of equioment. Taking studio portraits was relatively easy. Taking cameras outdoors even to nearby city scenes was complivated and hot more complicated the further one went from the studio. You needed a waggon dull of equipment, olates, and chenicals. Almost all of the albumen prints we have found are mounted cards, either CDVs or cabinet cards. The vast majority of these mounted photograpf were standard sizes. The CDVs were about 2 3/8" x 4 1/4 inches and did not change over time. The classic cabinet cards were about 6.5 x 4.25 inches. There was a larger size, but they were not very common. Around the turn-of-century we begin to see all kinds of new styled cabinet cards in different sizes than the classic cards.

Costs

A very important aspect of the new lbumen format was cost. Early photographic formats created high-quality images. This included Daguereotypes, Ambrotypes and tintupes. Dags were expensive, primarily because of the pollished copper plates used. We see cost of bout $5.00 each, a substabtial sum in the nid-19th century. Ambros and tin-types were less expensive, but still relatively expensive. This cjnged rmrkavly with the appearance of the ambro negative process and printing on paper. We note an Oregon studio offering 12 prints for $2.00 or about $0.15 each. That was a huge decline in price. It meant not only that many more images were made, but that a much wider swath of society could afford to have photogrphic portrairts taken in studios and duplcates made. The larger cabinet car prints were only slightly more expensive. And the stereo view cards which we seein numbers could be made inexpensively in quatnity.

Stereo View Cards

Stereo photographs first appeared (1849). They quickly became popular in both popular in both Europe and only a few years later in Amrica (1850s). They were done on cards because early albumen photographic paper was so thin and fragil. A stereo photographic card was two photographs mounted side by side, shot by a special mera capturing an identical subject from t slightly different perspectives. The result was that when viewed through a 'stereoscope', a three dimensional view appeared. There were stereo daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, etc., but these are rare and did not prove popular. A standard card was important so that consumers only needed one stereoscope device. By the 1860s, a stereocope and collection of stereocards was a popular fixture in any Victorian parlor. This of course was before photolithgorphy. Phototographs could not be reproduced in books and magazines at the time, except through the expensive process of engraving. And of course there was no movies or television at the time the stereoscope appeared. Stereo photography began to fill a huge demand for views of the world and important figures from the rising, educated middle class. There were views on geographic featres, foreign countries ad peoples, cities, animals, history, industry, current affairs, and much more. There were also entertainnent, primarily set-piece jockes. A standard was michevious children, mostly boys of course. The infomative cards cards often came ith a text on the back providing background information on the image. Stereo photographic cards continued to be popular for a half century well into the 20th century. Although develoed in Europe, because of the huge number of prosperous Amercans, the photographic record to a large extent is made up of cards produced by American companies. Only a few important companies were involved. The vast majority of stereoviews were mounted albumen prints. And the stereotype declined in popularity when lithography was perfectedand the movies appered. This seems to have satisfied the popular demand for images. This all occurred as silver nitate images began to replace albumen prints. Thus almost all sterocards are done with albumen prints.

Created: 11:39 AM 8/11/2012
Last updated: 10:04 PM 8/8/2019