William C. Darrah collection of cartes-de-visite

The William C. Darrah Collection includes 62,608 cartes-de-visite assembled systematically over a period of more than thirty years (1954-1988). Darrah chose to collect the carte format in documenting the existence of 19th century photographers due to the fact daguerreotypes and ambrotypes were seldom imprinted or signed by the photographer. Acquisitions were of two types: the purchase of select cartes to illustrate technical and aesthetic aspects of carte-de-visite photography; the purchase of random lots of 100-2,000 cartes from sources in 28 states in order to achieve broad geographic representation.

The U.S. states with the greatest number of cartes-de-visite in the Photographer series are: Massachusetts (11,200); New York (7,300); Pennsylvania (4,600); Illinois (3,300); Ohio (2,800); New Hampshire (1,800); Connecticut (1,650); Maine (1,550); Michigan (1,200); Iowa (1,050); Wisconsin (1,000); New Jersey (850); Indiana (800); California (600); Rhode Island (550).

The U.S. states with the greatest number of individual photographers in the Photographer Series are: New York (2,175); Pennsylvania (2,035); Illinois (1,400); Ohio (1,285); Massachusetts (1,230); Iowa (670); Michigan (560); Wisconsin (485); California (475); Missouri (340); Maine (340); Kansas (320); New Hampshire (300); Vermont (270); Minnesota (260).

There are 3,600 cartes-de-visite representing the work of 2,700 photographers from countries other than the United States. Countries with the greatest number of cartes in the collection include: Great Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland.

Additionally, the topic and format series highlights Native American portraiture, the American Civil War, scenic views, and the work of female photographers.