Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)

Refers to small-format photographs affixed to card stock, particularly the card photographs patented by the Parisian photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854 and similar items produced by Mathew B. Brady and other photographers. They went out of fashion in the 1870s. The photographs were typically portraits and the image was a standard size of 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches; they were generally produced by a multiple-lens camera that created several images on a single full-sized negative plate. Full-size prints from the plate were cut into sections measuring 4 x 2 1/2 inches, and the pieces were often mounted on cards, which initially served as visitors' cards; it later became the custom to exchange them on birthdays and holidays, and to collect cartes-de-visite of friends, family members, and celebrities in albums.