Photograph Albums Late 19th Century

Thank you to Marcel Safier, Queensland, Australia for sending these observations on photograph albums in the late-Victorian era. Marcel wrote:

Sizes of Photographs "As a collector of 19th century card photographs, the sizes and styles of photographs is something I have been very interested in. There was a proliferation of styles and sizes of photo in the  1890s."

Photograph Albums "Photograph albums give a clue to the more popular photo sizes available. In the 1870s and 1880s they usually had openings for just cartes de visite and cabinet prints. In the 1890s, albums started to include space for several larger photos: Imperial photos (a very long cabinet style photo) and one or two for the large Paris Panels (although these were more suited to framing) as well as Minettes or other sub carte sized photos.

Small Photos "I have some dedicated albums for sub carte sized formats, with one example containing two different opening sizes. I have never seen an album with anywhere near all the sub–carte sized spaces filled and I think these photos were a format that just never took off and hence owners never accumulated sufficient photos to fill their albums. Often postcard and other later photos were later cut down to fill the remaining spaces I have only just begun working on a research article on the Minette in the UK and Australia at present.  The 1890s Minette mounts are 1.5/8 ins x 3 ins  with rounded corners. Image size varies but is approx. 1.1/2 ins x 2.1/2 ins”. In fact, I believe that Minettes may date back to the late 1870s.  I have an American example from this period." I am unsure of the name for an even smaller sized card mount approx. 1.1/4 ins x 2.1/4 ins. I intend sourcing contemporary catalogues to learn more."

Marcel Safier, Photo Historian, Holland Park, Queensland, Australia:  February 10, 2008