CARTE-DE-VISITE

calling card, especially one with a photographic portrait of the bearer, which was immensely popular in the middle of the 19th century. The carte-de-visite was originated by the Parisian portrait photographer Andr-Adolphe-Eugne Disdri (181990?). In 1854 he patented the four-lensed carte-de-visite camera, which made eight 3.25- by 2.25-inch (8.44- by 5.69-centimetre) negatives on one full-sized plate. The large print made from that plate was cut up, and the small, inexpensive portraits were separately mounted on cards measuring about 4 by 2.5 inches to serve as visitors' cards. The carte-de-visite became a fad after the French emperor Napoleon III posed for Disdri. Cartes-de-visite were often exchanged on birthdays and holidays, and the carte-de-visite album became a common feature of Victorian parlours. During the American Civil War, Mathew B. Brady and other photographers did a booming business in them in Washington, D.C., and New York City. After the 1860s the fashion for cartes-de-visite waned. The cartes of celebrities and royalty remain collectors items.