Figure 1.--This English CDV was taken in 1892. Notice that it looks more like a cabinet card at the time without the colored rules used in early CDVs. Americans began turning to the larger cabinet cards about 1866 abd CDVs declined very rapidly. This transituiin to cabinet cards for some reason was much slower in Britain. We have no udea why, but we still see substantial numbers of CDVs in Britain into the 1890s. We have no idea why.

As with many early photograohic development. The albumen oprocess originated in France. It is siometimes called the albumen silver pprocess. The basic chemistry was developed by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard in France (1847). It was the first commercially viable process of creating negatives and producing a photographic print on paper. 【Newhall】 The process takes its name from using the albumen found in egg whites to bind the silver photographic chemicals to the paper. It began to replace the early provcesses by the mid-1850s, but really large number of albumen prints did not appear until the 1860s by which time it dominated photography for four decades. The two principal types of albumen prints were CDVs and cabinet cards, firmats used in studios. Stereoscopic card were also important, but these were cards made by companies to bringb images of olaces and peiole from around the world into British living rooms. The albumen process was invented in France (1850). For some reason it was not at firstvery popular. Patent law appears to have been the major impediment. The first commercial development was the CDV which for some reason did not become popular until the 1860s. Suddenly we have really large numbers of images. Mych larger than the number of Dags and Ambros. The albumen pricess involved a negarive and paper prints. his was much cheaper than a Dag or Ambto and provided for multiple print to share with family and friends. The CDV became populasr in Britain and America at about the same time, although there are vastly more American than British and other European CDVs. At the time the Americn and British populations were comparable. So the disparity in the size of the photographic record was not population. It was more patent laws weree more stringlyb enfirced in Britain. Americans began turning to the larger cabinet cards about 1866 abd CDVs declined very rapidky. This transituiin to cabinet cards for some reason was much slower in Britain. We have no udea why, but we still see substantial numbers of CDVs in Britain into the 1890s. We have no idea why.

Sources

Newhall, Beaumont (April 1955). "60,000 Eggs A Day" Journal of Photography Vol 4, No. 4 (April 1955), pp. 25–26.

Created: 3:42 PM 2/26/2023
Last updated: 3:43 PM 2/26/2023