Description
The carte-de-visite album contains 50
cartes-de-visite of Algeria and Algerians by various photographers including Jean Geiser and
Alexandre Leroux; a two-part panorama of Algiers by Jean Geiser made from two joined
horizontal cabinet cards; and a panoramic view of Oran by A. Decugis showing the port and
military hospital, also on a horizontal cabinet card.
Background
Lucien-Jacob Geiser (1810-1852), an ébéniste by trade, immigrated to Algeria from
Switzerland with his wife Julie and three sons in 1850, but died shortly thereafter in 1852.
It is unclear whether Geiser père opened the photography business or his widow Julie opened
it after her husband's death, but the family eventually partnered with Jean-Baptiste-Antoine
Alary (1810-c. 1867), an early daguerreotypist, renaming the firm Alary & Geiser. After
Alary's death the youngest Geiser son, Jean-Théophile (1848-1923), took over the business,
running it into the 1920s under the name Jean Geiser.