Identifying Ancestor Photos: Cartes de Visite

Genealogists often have old family photos in their possession or they find some in Great Aunt Matilda's attic. But how do we know when the photograph was taken? One method is to determine what type of photograph it is

Photography arrived in the United States in 1839 thanks to Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist and inventor. The earliest type is the Daguerreotype. Ambrotypes followed, coming into use circa 1854. By 1860 Cartes de Visite (CDVs) were becoming popular.

Cartes de Visite

Cartes de Visite are photographs mounted on a small (4x2.5") cardboard card. They became extremely popular as a method of collecting photographs of friends and family members to place in elaborate albums. A CDV could be easily duplicated in contrast to the earlier daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.

Estimating Dates of a CDV

Early 1860s CDVs have square corners. By 1870 many had rounded corners. The thinner the cardboard backing, the earlier the Cartes de Visite. Photographers logos, found on the verso (back) of the CDV also began to change, becoming more elaborate in later years.

Examples of Cartes de Visite

 

1877 Cartes de Visite, round corners

1864 CDV

 

1872 CDV with round corners

  

CDV 1872

  

1871 CDV

 

Learn More about Cartes de Visite

Watch my video on Five Types of Early 19th Century Photographs

Read more about Cartes de Visite on my Lost Faces website

Identifying Ancestor Photos: Cartes de Visite

Genealogists often have old family photos in their possession or they find some in Great Aunt Matilda's attic. But how do we know when the photograph was taken? One method is to determine what type of photograph it is

Photography arrived in the United States in 1839 thanks to Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist and inventor. The earliest type is the Daguerreotype. Ambrotypes followed, coming into use circa 1854. By 1860 Cartes de Visite (CDVs) were becoming popular.

Cartes de Visite

Cartes de Visite are photographs mounted on a small (4x2.5") cardboard card. They became extremely popular as a method of collecting photographs of friends and family members to place in elaborate albums. A CDV could be easily duplicated in contrast to the earlier daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.

Estimating Dates of a CDV

Early 1860s CDVs have square corners. By 1870 many had rounded corners. The thinner the cardboard backing, the earlier the Cartes de Visite. Photographers logos, found on the verso (back) of the CDV also began to change, becoming more elaborate in later years.

Examples of Cartes de Visite

 

1877 Cartes de Visite, round corners

1864 CDV

 

1872 CDV with round corners

  

CDV 1872

  

1871 CDV

 

Learn More about Cartes de Visite

Watch my video on Five Types of Early 19th Century Photographs

Read more about Cartes de Visite on Lost Faces website

Research team uncovers lost images from the 19th century

As many of my readers know, I'm an avid collector of 19th century photographs. My website Lost Faces has published images of my collection of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, as well as the cartes de visite and cabinet cards that I rescue from antique stores and flea markets.

Many times I pass on purchasing an old photo because it is so badly damaged it is almost unrecognizable. But that might change!

A team of scientists led by Western University in London Ontario learned how to use light to see through degradation in daguerreotypes, a form of photography popular in the early 1800s. Daguerreotypes came into being in 1839 and were the earliest type of photography.

The team of scientists used two daguerreotypes from the 1850s that were damaged beyond recognition of the subjects. They could see one was a woman, the other a man but no details were visible.

The original Daguerreotype

The Daguerreotype after the process

Read more at Research team uncovers lost images from the 19th century

Preservation of a Lost Faces Album Part 4

Please see Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

After I remove all the photos from the album, and notate on the verso (back) of each photo in pencil, it's time to scan and store them in acid-free containers.

My husband scans the front of each image. If he has time he also scans the verso so that I have a record of the photographers' logos and addresses. He works with a flatbed scanner in jpg format at a resolution suitable for publishing online. Resolution and format are important and the better quality image you require means you need higher resolution and a better file format. jpg is used when small file size is more important than maximum image quality such as my use on the Lost Faces website.

Here is a good explanation of types of file formats you can use when scanning, and the pros and cons of each. 

My storage boxes from pfile.com

Once my husband has scanned all the photos, I place them in acid-free "sleeves" and store them as a unit (an entire photo album) in acid-free boxes. I used to store them in acid-free binders for ease of looking through the photos but as my collection of rescued photographs grew, that system became too cumbersome. 

Using the boxes instead of binders has other positive effects. I can easily open a box and sort photos by years or fashion choices or hair styles or genres. Because I have the photo album number and photo number notated on the verso I will never lose the place where any particular photo belongs.

Last item is uploading and publishing these gorgeous rescued ancestral photographs online on Lost Faces.

 

Update: New Photos on Lost Faces

From the Pratt Morse Photo Album

On the weekend I added more photos to my new website Lost Faces. The Pratt Morse photo album is an amazing rescue - not only was I able to purchase two of the three Civil War era albums from this family, I was also able to save several individual cased daguerreotypes. I wish I could have purchased the third album but they were very expensive. 

Two male members of the Pratt family, Franklin Amos Pratt and Charles Pratt, were both in the 1st Regiment, Connecticut Heavy Artillery and R.S. Morse Sr may have also been in this regiment.

So far we have scanned 7 of the over 100 photos and these are online where they can be freely viewed and saved for your own personal use. I hope to have many more from this album completed and online over the next two weeks.  

Photos still in the beautiful Pratt Morse Family album

Surnames: Pratt, Morse, Morgan, Wilcox, Johnson, Pond, Stephen, Brach, Andrews, Steele, Lisdale, Wooster, Blakesly, Stevens
Locations: Connecticut, New York 

I also re-scanned several CDVs from the Kelley Family Photo album and replaced the poor quality scans with better ones.

So Many Goodies Coming to Lost Faces Photo Albums!

Look what arrived yesterday! Yep, another rescued antique photo album! Number 81.....and yes, it will be going online on my Lost Faces website ASAP.

I can't resist these beautiful albums with identified photos inside. They're never my ancestors but I still am driven to save them from being lost and forgotten.

I finally had a chance to unpack this album today and believe me, it was hard to wait. I'm like a kid at Christmas with these gorgeous albums chock full of family memories and treasures.

It's easy to picture what the album looked like when new. It would have been gleaming, clean and shiny. Imagine the family's excitement (or more likely the wife's excitement) when she bought it to put her treasured photos in.

Just look at this beauty! I am always so anxious to get going on the photgraphs - the CDVs, cabinet cards and tintypes, but I force myself to go slow. My first step is always to document the album and the order of photos inside, with camera pictures. That can help identify any photos that do not have names on them.

So I had a sneak peek and took a few camera photos to start the process. Let me share those with you.

 first page. It is empty but the name of the person whose photo was originally there is intact. That helps put together family groups and identify the family who may have originally owned the photo album. This empty page has the inscription  And the hunt is on! I'm so curious - who was Aunt Mariah? And was her husband's name really Whittier? It is difficult to read and I'm hoping that getting further into the album will reveal if I've managed to decipher it correctly.

The next page was just as intriguing. The photo slot was empty but written on the album page was "Aunt Hattie White's child" When oh when will I get to that ingriguing photo peeking out on the right? That was all I had time for today but tomorrow I will be back at the puzzle and continue with taking my camera photos and carefully documenting the album.

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

Children's Fashions in Civil War Era Photographs

CDVs (Cartes de Visite) arrived in the United States around 1859, on the eve of the Civil War (1861-1865). Demand for CDVs was high, as soldiers and their loved ones sought an affordable image of remembrance. Special photo albums were designed especially for cartes-de-visite.

Several years ago while prowling through a local antique store, I came upon a gorgeous leather photo album full of beautiful old portraits.  Most of the photos were identified with names in elaborate old handwriting and that also caught my eye. Holding a CDV in your hand is like holding a window to the past and I couldn’t walk away from that album. I wanted a better glimpse through that window.  That was the start of my collection of Civil War Era Photograph Albums. You can see many of them on my Lost Faces website. 

Children’s portraits of this time period  intrigue me, as during the Civil War era they were dressed as miniature adults. Young girls were dressed as miniature adults. Very young girls wore skirts and petticoats that were mid‐calf with pantaloons at ankle length. In 1862 three year old Mary Mermod wore a shorter scoop necked dress with pantaloons just below her knees.

Mary Mermod 1862. Private Collection L. Massey

In 1863 little Fanny Towne wore a scooped neckline which was no doubt identical to her mother’s evening or formal gown.

Fanny Towne July 1863. Private Collection L. Massey

As girls grew older and developed a bust, skirts and petticoats became ankle length or
longer, and pantaloons became shorter. The sisters Emily and Susie Fryer in 1863 have longer skirts and their pantaloons barely show.

Emily & Susie Fryer 1863. Private Collection L. Massey

Other clues for dating these lovely old photos is hairstyles. Young girls wore their hair in similar fashion to their mothers. Notice how these young girls have their hair parted in the middle (just as their mothers would have had) and at the height of the Civil War, had long ringlets added.