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Bookshops along both European and Middle Eastern
tourist routes increasingly catered for the well-off visi-
tor, with expensively produced albums of photographs.
Photographically illustrated albums, as well as single
unmounted prints, of such locations as Florence, Pom-
pei, and Rome in Italy, the architectural treasures of
Ancient Greece, and the treasures of the Nile were all
available by the late 1850s. Italian photographers such
as Alinari, and Brogi, both in Florence, catered for the
art lover, selling both large format prints and cartes-
de-visite of the treasures of Italy’s most famous cities
and galleries.
In America, as the country was opened up to tourists,
the same pattern emerged, with souvenir photo booths
opening at all the major attractions. One of the fi rst
was at Niagara Falls, where in the early 1850s, Platt D.
Babbitt established an outdoor facility, photographing
visitors against the dramatic backdrop of the Falls, but
also selling ‘off the shelf’ scenic views as well.
When the Crystal Palace building was removed from
the Hyde Park site in London and rebuilt at Sydenham,
photographers Negretti & Zambra opened a retail outlet
within the building for photographic souvenirs of a visit
to the exhibition complex. By 1855, and the opening of
the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the idea of selling
photographic souvenirs at exhibition sites was well
established, and Parisian photographer André Adolphe
Eugène Disdéri formed a company specifi cally and ex-
clusively to make and retail souvenir photographs—da-
guerreotypes, stereo daguerreotypes and paper prints.
Subsequent exhibitions and world fairs all had a photo-
graphic franchise, selling souvenirs of the visit, a pattern
which continue past the end of the century to this day.
By the mid 1850s, the distribution of the fi nest images
from several of the leading photographers of the day was
already being handled by well-established art dealers.
In London, P & D Colnaghi had established themselves
as early promoters of photography, and with Thomas
Agnew of Manchester co-marketed Roger Fenton’s
Crimean War photographs in Great Britain. Those same
images were distributed and marketed in New York by
Williams & Co., and in France by Parisian photographer
and print-seller, Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin, from
his premises at 23 Rue Richer.
Colnaghi’s entry into the photographic retail market
was belatedly reported in The Art Journal in 1857,
which reported:
In addition to the other departments of their extensive and
very complete establishment, Messrs P. and D. Colnaghi
have just completed the requisite arrangements for the
productions of photographs of the highest class and of the
largest size and also in every possible vartiety. We have
been able to examine many of these photographs and their
excellence justifi es our pronouncing their appearance as
a new era in art.Colnaghi also handled the distribution and marketing
of some of Fenton’s photographs of the treasures of the
British Museum, but in his business dealings with the
museum authorities in the 1850s, Fenton introduced a
number of innovative marketing approaches, including
an agreement to produce negatives without charge in
return for the right to sell prints himself, made after the
museum’s orders had been fulfi lled. This culminated
in the establishment of a sale kiosk in the museum
foyer, where images were sold to the visiting public by
Fenton’s staff. The success of this venture, in addition
to substantial print orders from the museum trustees
themselves, kept a number of staff at Fenton’s printing
establishment occupied.
They later also marketed many of the works of Julia
Margaret Cameron, both in large format prints, and in
the increasingly popular carte-de-visite size.
The popularity of the carte-de-visite and the stereo-
scope turned even relatively small photographic portrait
studios into retail establishments, with the rise of the
album fuelling demand for images from the catalogues
of leading producers such as Mayall, the London Stereo-
scopic Company, Nadar, and others. E.H.&T.Anthony
also became distributors of cartes, with their catalogues
being retailed from studio outlets throughout America
and Europe.
Many studios stocked and retailed portraits of Eu-
ropean royalty, American presidents, stars of stage and
music hall, and other celebrities.
With poor copyright protection for photographs, how-
ever, many of the sales thus achieved did not benefi t the
original photographers, with copies rather than originals
being offered for sale. One of the fi rst to establish what
is now recognised as ‘image rights’ and thus benefi t
fi nancially from the sale of his ‘likeness,’ was Tom
Thumb, who controlled the marketing of pictures of
himself and his family.
For much of the 19th century, the photographic ex-
hibition served as a successful retail outlet for images,
with exhibition catalogues from the early 1850s giving
a price for each image on display.
By the early 20th century, however, the retail market
for photographic images had largely been transferred to
the picture postcard.
John HannavySee also: Agnew, Thomas, and Sons; Alinari, Fratelli;
Anthony, Edward, and Henry Tiebout; Babbitt,
Platt D.; Beato, Antonio; Bonfi ls, Fèlix, Marie-
Lydie Cabanis, and Adrien; Brogi, Giacomo, Carlo
and Alfredo; Cameron, Julia Margaret; Colnaghi;
Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-Mandé; Disdéri, André-
Adolphe-Eugène; Fenton, Roger; Giroux, André;
Henneman, Nicolaas; Horne and Thornthwaite;
Lemercier, Lerebours & Bareswill; Mayall, John