My Family Tree

Many albums produced at this time were leather bound in the style of a family bible. The pages were made with a rectangular aperture, sized to take the photographs of the time with a slot cut beneath so that the card could be slid beneath the aperture.

There were two standard card sizes.

The cartes de visite (introduced to England in 1857) was about the size of a visiting card, 3.5" x 2.25" photograph mounted on a trade card 4.125" x 2.5". They enabled 4, 6 or 10 different image to be exposed on a single glass plate.

Cabinet prints (introduced c. 1866) were 5.5" x 4" photos mounted on cards 6.5" x 4.25". with the photographer's name and address on the back of the card (or occasionally below the photo on the front of the card).

Each decade of the carte, and later the larger version called a cabinet card, had its own characteristic studio accessories:

1860's - balustrade, column and curtain
1870's - rustic bridge and stile
1880's - hammock, swing and railway carriage
1890's - palm trees, cockatoos (usually stuffed specimens) and bicycles
1900's - the motor car