Name/Title
Hon. Wm. McKinley Carte de VisiteEntry/Object ID
95.1.099Description
Carte De Visite of the Hon. William McKinley. The photo is sepia, with McKinley facing the viewer's left. The maker's mark is on the bottom front: Launey New York. the back is blank. The photo is in a hard laminated pouch.
According to Brittanica.com:
"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 André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, who patented the method in 1854. Disdéri 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.
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."Collection
unknownAcquisition
Accession
95.1.099Source or Donor
UnknownAcquisition Method
Gift