Last year I saw an unusual exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago called Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage. It’s in New York City now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from there it will travel to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. I’ve been meaning to write about the show since the day I saw it. Kay Tuttle’s illustrations, which I briefly wrote about yesterday, reminded me yet again of the exhibit. I’m taking this as a sign that I should give up my original intention of writing an analysis on the connections between a Victorian pastime and the hobbies of the 21st century and just provide you with an overview. Otherwise, I may never finish the article. Calling cards of the 1
8th century were replaced during the latter part of the Victorian era with the popular cartes de visite, patented by photographer André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri. The carte de visite resembled today’s baseball card, sporting either a photo of an individual or of a group. English noblewomen were the first to collect and insert these calling cards into albums—either on blank pages or on pages removed from periodicals and books. (You see? Yet another example of grangerizing.) Each album is a miniature showcase of a woman’s artistic abilities, the network of people she’s related to or friends with, and the culture of the times. (The previous link takes you to some historical notes on the album of Madame B. and, if you scroll to the bottom right, a link into the actual album. Beneath each page is a link to the next.) 
Later, some companies produced preillustrated albums to sell to lower-class women (who weren’t skilled in the finer arts) who could purchase calling cards of the rich and famous and mingle them with photographs of the people they really knew.
Do these hobbies sound familiar to you? If you’ve ever indulged in scrapbooking, or followed someone on Facebook, or collected baseball cards, or networked over cocktails, you have something in common with these Victorian pioneers.
If you’re able, I encourage you to attend the show and see the albums for yourself—see how history (even if slightly modified) does indeed repeat itself.
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