The Southern Cartes de Visite Collection is a recently digitized group of 3,356 photographs from circa 1850 to 1900. The map below depicts the locations of the collection's photographers, studios, and galleries between about 1850 and 1900. Users can browse the map and select locations to see information and examples of the cartes-de-visite taken there. Users can also filter the collection by photographer and zoom in to cities like Baltimore, Louisville, or New Orleans to see the individual studio addresses. By clicking on the locations, users can access an Acumen link to see the photographs and manipulate them as if they were in the archive.
The cartes-de-visite, or "visiting cards," are part of the A.S. Williams III Americana Collection at The University of Alabama. The photographs represent an impressive range of southern studios during a time when the prints were the most popular and inexpensive form of portrait photography. Small (2 1/2 by 4 1/2) albumen images mounted on cardstock, cartes-de-visite allowed customers to quickly and easily share photographs with friends, family, and colleagues. Many prominent and lesser-known photographers are represented, and the collection serves as a valuable resource for historians of the South, genealogists, and the general public.