What is "carte de visite"

Carte de visite \Carte" de vi*site`\, pl. Cartes de visite.

1. A visiting card.

2. A photographic picture of the size formerly in use for a visiting card.

1861, French, literally "visiting card" (see card (n.1)); photograph portrait mounted on a 3.5 by 2.5 inch card.

n. 1 A business card 2 (context dated English) A visiting card 3 (context obsolete English) A photograph of a famous person, the same size as a visiting card

The carte de visite (abbreviated CdV or CDV, and also spelled carte-de-visite or erroneously referred to as carte de ville) was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris, France by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero. It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. The size of a carte de visite is × mounted on a card sized × . In 1854, Disdéri had also patented a method of taking eight separate negatives on a single plate, which reduced production costs. The Carte de Visite was slow to gain widespread use until 1859, when Disdéri published Emperor Napoleon III's photos in this format. This made the format an overnight success. The new invention was so popular it was known as "cardomania" and it spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America and the rest of the world.

Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors. Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors. The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons.

By the early 1870s, cartes de visite were supplanted by " cabinet cards", which were also usually albumen prints, but larger, mounted on cardboard backs measuring by . Cabinet cards remained popular into the early 20th century, when Kodak introduced the Brownie camera and home snapshot photography became a mass phenomenon.