Cartes de Visite

“Cartes de Visite” and Rev. Thomas May

On 27 November 1854 André-Adolphe Eugène Disdéri (1819-1889), a French photographer, patented his version of the Cartes de Visite, a small photographic image which was mounted on a card.   The system could print ten photographs on a single sheet and although photographs had previously served as calling cards, Disdéri’s invention enabled the mass production of photographs, a system which became world famous.  His Cartes de Visiste were 6 x 9 cm, about the size of conventional non-photographic visiting cards of the time and were made by a camera with four lenses and a sliding plate holder.  The novelty quickly spread.  Even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had cards made of themselves which were sold.

In Leigh, our Vicar, the Rev. Thomas May (1798-1888) was a keen collector.   According to notes and correspondence we have from the May family, Thomas May had two albums of these Cartes de Visite which had been given to him as gifts.  When Lawrence Biddle was researching his book, Leigh in Kent 1550-1900, the May family sent him a few originals of these Cartes de Visite as well as photocopies of many of the cards which give us likenesses of the many contacts and friends he had as well as of members of his family.  As well as photos of the May family, there are photos of the Bailys, including Charles Baily, architect, and the Morleys of Hall Place, the Streatfeilds, the de L’Isles, the children of the Rev. Collum, Maud Agnes Heath (of The Woods), and other local families such as the Hills, the Wells, the Hardinge family of South park, the Saint family who were related to Thomas May’s wife.

Joyce Field  (Parish Magazine article: Dec 2021)