Category: Arts & Humanities, Image, English, People, Yale University

The carte-de-visite, usually an albumen paper photograph mounted on a heavy paper card measuring 2½ × 4 inches, flourished in popularity between 1860 and the 1880s. The Carl Mautz collection of cartes-de-visite photographs created by California photographers includes 145 images consisting chiefly of portraits depicting children, women, and men, in single and group sittings and various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Asian American and African Americans. The portraits also include persons with unique physical features, including midgets, dwarves, and giants as well as butchers, circus performers, freemason, miners, musicians, sailors, and soldiers.