A Collection of Portraits by Boston Studio “Southworth & Hawes” (1850s)

American photographic studio Southworth & Hawes was established in Boston, Massachusetts in 1843 when Albert Sands Southworth, a druggist, and Josiah Johnson Hawes, a painter, joined together to open a daguerreotype studio. Though portraits were the bulk of the firm’s production, they also produced landscape views.

From 1849 to 1851 Southworth left the studio to travel to California. He returned in 1851 and renewed the partnership with Hawes.

In 1853 Hawes purchased the rights to John Adams Whipple’s process for making paper prints called crystalotypes and the firm began to produce them.

In 1861 the partnership was dissolved. Both Southworth and Hawes continued to operate separate studios in Boston, Massachusetts.

Unknown woman by Southworth and Hawes, ca. 1850s via

Unknown woman by Southworth and Hawes, ca. 1850s via

Miss Hodges of Salem, MET, 1850 via

Lola Montez by Southworth & Hawes, 1851 via

The Letter by Southworth & Hawes, ca. 1850 via

Unknown bride by Southworth and Hawes, ca. 1850s via

Albert Sands Southworth – Untitled, ca. 1851 – 1854 via

A Collection of Victorian “Carte de Visites”

The carte de visite was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854.  It was a small, cheap portrait format which made photography available to the masses.

It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card.

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.

The new invention was so popular it was known as “cardomania”and it spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America and the rest of the world.

The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons.

Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors.

Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors.

By the early 1870s, cartes de visite were supplanted by “cabinet cards,” which were also usually albumen prints, but larger, mounted on cardboard backs.

Contemporary carte de visite, 1860s via

Victorian carte de visite circa 1880s via

One of the first cartes de visite of Queen Victoria taken by photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall via

Napoléon III and his wife Eugenie, cartes de visite by Disderi, circa 1865 via

Carte de visite photograph of Ella Wesner, circa 1872, the most celebrated male impersonator of the Gilded Age Vaudeville circuit. via

 1860s original/vintage albumen carte de visite of a lovely young California bride in her flowing white wedding dress taken by the pioneer daguerreotypist from San Francisco, William Shew via

Queen Victorias Wedding 10th of February 1840

Queen Victoria first met her German cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1836, and they became engaged during his second visit to England in 1839. Their wedding ceremony took place on 10 February 1840 at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.

Queen Victoria chose to marry Prince Albert in a white silk satin gown featuring Honiton lace, an unusual color choice for bridal gowns at the time; she started the white wedding gown tradition that remains today. On her wedding morning, Queen Victoria wrote in her journal:

Dressed….I wore a white satin gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton, imitation of old. I wore my Turkish diamond necklace and earrings, and Albert’s beautiful sapphire brooch.

She also wore a wreath of orange blossoms (symbolising purity) and myrtle (symbolising love and domestic happiness), and these became the most common flowers carried and worn in Victorian weddings.

Their wedding day itself was inauspicious, a heavy rain falling; but immense multitudes assembled to gaze upon the processions. The bridal procession from Buckingham Palace to St. James’s begun to move through the triumphal arch at 12 o’clock. It was the first wedding of a reigning Queen in England since 1554.

Queen Victoria spent the evening after her wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

Her marriage to Prince Albert brought nine children between 1840 and 1857. Most of her children married into other Royal families of Europe.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their return from the marriage service at St James’s Palace, London, 10th February 1840. Engraved by S Reynolds after F Lock via

A middle aged Victoria and Albert recreate their wedding day. Photo by Roger Fenton 1854 via

Princess Beatrice Posing in her Beautiful Wedding Dress (1885)

In 1885 Princess Beatrice (1857-1944), the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, married Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896).

The marriage took place at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight on 23 July.

They had 3 sons and 1 daughter. Their daughter was Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain. King Felipe VI of Spain is her great-great-grandson.

Princess Beatrice posing in her wedding dress, 1885 via

Princess Beatrice posing with prince Henry, 1885 via

Princess Beatrice posing in her wedding dress, 1885 via

Princess Beatrice posing in her wedding dress, 1885 via

The Most Brilliant Victorian Wedding Gowns

 Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840; this is a middle aged Victoria and Albert who recreate their wedding day. Queen Victoria chose to marry in a white silk satin gown featuring Honiton lace, an unusual color choice for bridal gowns at the time; she started the white wedding gown tradition that remains today.

1858 photo of princess royal victorias wedding dress. She was the oldest daughter of queen Victoria. She married Frederick, Crown Prince of Germany and Prussia later Frederick III, German Emperor and King of Prussia (1831–1888); 4 sons, 4 daughters (including Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia and Sophia, Queen of Greece)

1863 Princess Alexandra Of Denmark, later Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India as the wife of King-Emperor Edward VII.

Princess Louise (1848-1939) in her wedding dress. Married 1871, John Douglas Sutherland Campbell (1845–1914), Marquess of Lorne, later 9th Duke of Argyll.

Princess Helena (1846-1923) in her wedding dress. Married 1866, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1831–1917); 4 sons (1 still-born), 2 daughters.

1885 Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Married 1885, Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896); 3 sons, 1 daughter (Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain).

Victoria of Baden. She married in Karlsruhe on 20 September 1881 Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden and Norway, the son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and Sofia of Nassau.

Annie Chinery. The daughter of Dr Edward Chinery from Lymington, married the photographer Julia Cameron’s son Ewen in 1869

Bride from the 1850s

American bride

Baroness Christine von Linden (1879-1969). She married diplomat and adventurer Cecil Gosling  (1870-1943) on the 13th of May 1898. They married in London. She was the only daughter of Baron Adhémar Rudolph Caesar Conradin von Linden from Germany and Helene Euphrosyne Casavetti from London.

Bride getting dressed, 1890s