Portrait Album

This album contains a collection of portraits in the format of cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards.

The carte-de-visite was introduced in the 1850s by French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri. Since Disdéri depended on the wet collodion process to create the portraits he sold at his Paris studio, exposing one plate required a significant amount of labour. An astute businessman, Disdéri came up with a new photographic format that would allow him to print eight full-length portraits with just one exposure by using a four-lens camera and sliding plate. The portraits were printed on albumen paper, a type of light-sensitive paper made with a coating of egg whites that allowed for a smooth surface. After printing, the portraits were mounted on cardboard and cut to produce eight distinct portraits. 

Cabinet cards are similar in format to cartes-de-visite, with an albumen print mounted on cardboard, but they are larger in size.

This album brings together cartes-de-visite of scientists, mostly entomologists, and was collected as part of Bruce Peel Special Collection’s Dr Ronald B. Madge Entomology Collection. While photography can record an individual’s likeness and provide information about their identity, it also leads us to consider how the work of collecting photographs and organizing them into an album helps shape and communicate information about the identity of the album’s compiler. Another portrait album housed by the Peel library contains pictures of actresses, singers, and dancers, and provides a feminine counterpoint to the portraits of men collected here.