This portrait of Leverett Judson Cahoon is a carte de visite or calling card print. This type of photographic portraiture was popular between 1859 to the early 1870s.
A four lensed camera could take eight negatives on a single glass pane. The resulting print would be cut into eight individual portraits and pasted to cards. With eight copies automatically made per session, carte de visite prints could be used similarly to calling cards and exchanged socially. They were mailed, given at holidays and birthdays as small gifts, and collected in albums.
However, in the 1870s the carte de visite cards began to be replaced by the larger cabinet cards as technology improved. Large prints were no longer as labor intensive and expensive as they had been. People jumped on the chance to have larger, more detailed photographs of their family and friends.
This carte de visite portrait of Leverett was likely taken in the 1860s. The back is decorated with the studio’s name, Ryder’s, which was located at 239 Superior Street, Cleveland, Ohio.
To learn more about Leverett go to frame #25.
