Cartes De Visite and Cabinet Cards

Cartes de visite and cabinet cards are two popular formats of photographic portraiture from the mid to late 19th century. They differ primarily in size and the level of detail on the card itself.

Cartes de visite, introduced in France in 1854, are small, approximately 2.5x4 inches, and were often collected in albums. They became hugely popular on both sides of the Atlantic between roughly 1859 and the early 1870s. Cartes de visite were eventually supplanted by the larger cabinet card beginning in the 1870s, introduced in 1863.

Cabinet cards are larger, around 4.5x6.5 inches, and often feature decorative artwork and the photographer's imprint on the card. The popularity of the cabinet card waned around the turn of the century, particularly after the introduction of the photographic postcard, but they were still being produced right until the World War I.