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.

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.

1 Linear Foot (Album of 52 photographs)

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