Carte de visites, circa 1860s and 1870s

115 Carte de visites from different countries around the world. The carte de visite abbreviated as cdv, was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854. It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. The approximate size of a carte de visite is 54.0 mm (2.125 in) × 89 mm (3.5 in) mounted on a card sized 64 mm (2.5 in) × 100 mm (4 in), but this varies from one country to another. The carte de visite was slow to gain widespread use until 1859, when Disdéri published Emperor Napoleon III's photos in this format. This made the format an overnight success.