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Carte-de-visite album of Algeria
2019.R.1  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Carte-de-visite album of Algeria
    Date (inclusive): 1870s-1880s
    Number: 2019.R.1
    Physical Description: 1 Linear Foot (Album of 52 photographs)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Special Collections
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: 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.
    Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record  for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    Language: Collection material is in English

    Biographical / Historical

    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.
    Alexandre Leroux owned and operated a photography studio in Algiers from the 1870s until his death in 1912. After his death, his sons continued selling his prints using his stamp.
    Little is known about the photographers L. Cairol; A. Decugis; Elie Karsenty; and A. Rigod.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    Preferred Citation

    Carte-de-visite album of Algeria, 1870s-1880s, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2019.R.1.
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2019r1

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Acquired in 2019.

    Processing Information

    The finding aid was written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2019.

    Existence and Location of Copies

    The collection was digitized by the repository in 2019 and the images are available online:
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2019r1

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The album contains 50 cartes-de-visite of Algeria and Algerians by various photographers; 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.
    The Geiser panorama of Algiers is the first image in the album, adhered to the verso of the blank page preceding the carte-de-visite mounts. The first part of the album is devoted to views of Algiers, Blida, and Oran, while the remaining images are studio portraits of Algerian "types." The larger view of Oran is the final image in the album.
    Rather than being inserted in their slots back-to-back, the cartes-de-visite are arranged in the album so that their versos are showing. The makers of the bulk of the photographs are not identified by imprints on their versos, and any imprints on their rectos are covered by the album mounts. In addition to Geiser and Decugis, photographers known to be represented in the album include Alexandre Leroux; L. Cairol; Elie Karsenty; and A. Rigod.
    The album has bossed brown calf covers with floral and geometric designs.
    Ink annotations are written in French on the versos of 33 of the cartes-de-visite, and on the rectos of the panoramas of Algiers and Oran.

    Arrangement

    The album is arranged in a single series: Series I.Carte-de-visite album of Algeria, 1870s-1880s.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Names

    Cairol, L.
    Jean, Geiser, 1848-1923
    Decugis, A.
    Karsenty, Elie
    Leroux, A. (Alexandre), 1832-1912
    Rigod, A.

    Subjects - Topics

    Algerians -- Portraits

    Subjects - Places

    Algiers (Algeria) -- Description and travel
    Blida (Algeria) -- Description and travel
    Oran (Algeria) -- Description and travel

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
    Cabinet cards -- Algeria -- 19th century
    Cartes-de-visite -- Algeria -- 19th century
    Photograph albums -- Algeria -- 19th century
    Photographs, Original