| Abstract: | Abstract Cartes-de-visite of the nineteenth century covered a wide spectrum of subjects, and were indeed ‘an interface between photography and the social scene’1. People wanted to have their photographs taken ‘to share among friends and to express, social standing’2; the likenesses were ‘inexpensive, easy to look at and easy to care for’3, and much cheaper than a painter's miniature, providing a commercial application of photography in sales of the object depicted. Indeed, Oliver Wendell Holmes called them ‘the greenbacks of civilisation’4. |
