Permission to publish material from Mr. & Mrs. O. S. Pence Carte de Visites must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Mr. & Mrs. O. S. Pence Carte de Visites, Ms2011-034, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
The Mr. & Mrs. O. S. Pence Carte de Visites were purchased by Special Collections in 2011.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Mr. & Mrs. O. S. Pence Carte de Visites was completed in March 2011.
The carte de visite or CDV (also carte-de-visite or sometimes 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. The Carte de Visite was slow to gain widespead use until 1859, when Disdéri published Emperor Napoleon III's photos in this format. This made the format an overnight success, and the new invention was so popular it was known as "cardomania" and eventually spread throughout the world.
Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors. The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons. "Cardomania" spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America. Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors.
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 4½ by 6½ inches. Cabinet cards remained popular into the early 20th century, when Kodak introduced the Brownie camera and home snapshot photography became a mass phenomenon.
The collection includes two carte-de-visites of Mr. & Mrs. O. S. Pence, taken at Rees studio in Richmond, Virginia, c.1861-1865. Each is posed beside photographer's stock background and chair.