279
In Britain, thermoplastic button-maker John Smith
produced a small range of cases, expanded by his suc-
cessors James and Edwin Gyde. Available from whole
plate down to 1/16th plate, the majority of union cases
were produced in the popular 1/9th and 1/6th plate
sizes. Most bear a maker’s label, and several have the
die-engraver identifi ed within the design.
Union cases designs include geometric motifs, fl oral
motifs, scenes from American history, from the Bible
and legend, and reliefs based on popular art and sculp-
ture. Die engravers included Frederick Seiler, Frederick
Key, Smith and Hartmann, Hiram Hayden, but many
examples of the engraver’s art are not identifi ed. In Brit-
ain, John Smith’s cases were made from dies engraved
by Brookes and Adams of Birmingham.
A small number of cases were produced for the paper
carte-de-visite print, but the low cost of the image did
not warrant the high cost of the case. By the mid-1860s,
the cased portrait was in decline and the family album
was in ascendancy.
John Hannavy
See Also: Daguerreotype; Brady, Matthew; Cartes-
de-Visite; and Mounting, Matting, Passe-Partout,
Framing, Presentation.
Further Reading
Berg, Paul, Nineteenth Century Photographic Cases and Wall
Frames, Huntington Beach: Huntington Valley Press, 1995.
Hannavy, John, “John Smith and England’s Union Cases” in The
Daguerreian Annual, Pittsburgh: The Daguerrean Society
1998.
Henisch, Heinz, and Henisch, Bridget, The Photographic Ex-
perience 1839–1914, University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1994.
Kenny, Adele, Photographic Cases—Victorian Design Sources
1840-1870, Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, 2001.
Krainik, Clifford, Krainik, Michelle and Walvoord, Carl, Union
Cases, Grantsburg: Centenniel Photo Service, 1988.
Rinhart, Floyd, and, Rinhart, Marion, American Miniature Case
Art, New York: Barnes and Company, 1969.
West, L, and Abbott, P, “Daguerreian Jewelry” in The Daguerre-
ian Annual, Lake Charles: The Daguerreian Society 1990.
CASLER, HERMAN (1867–1939)
Motion picture inventor, engineer
Born at Sandwich, Illinois, March 12, 1867. Mar-
ried Fanny Ehle. 1893 patented the Photoret novelty
camera. With Elias Koopman, Harry Marvin, and W.
K.-L. Dickson, Casler founded the KMCD syndicate
(an informal group), and later in 1895 the American
Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Seeking to design
a competitor to Edison’s peepshow Kinetoscope, they
developed the Mutoscope, the fl ip-photo coin-operated
machine that would be a popular feature of amusement
arcades for decades. Casler fi led the Mutoscope patent
November 21, 1894. A camera, the Mutograph, was
also developed, and—as the peep-show business was
unlikely to be suffi ciently profi table—a fi lm projector
too; the Biograph. Casler was involved in the design
and development of all of these machines. He was also
patentee of a version of the kinora domestic fl ip-photo
motion picture viewer, on which he had a patent agree-
ment with the Lumières. In 1896 he formed, with Harry
Marvin, the Marvin and Casler Company of Canastota
for the production of motion picture, arcade, and drill-
ing machines. He continued in engineering until 1926.
Died Canastota, New York, July 20, 1939.
Stephen HerbertCELEBRITY AND ROYALTY
One of the most notable consequences of the com-
mercialisation of photography during the late 1850s
was the advent of the celebrity picture. In both Europe
and North America, the carte-de-visite heralded an
unprecedented dynamic between mass culture and
photography. Favourite politicians and actresses, kings
and queens, and, later, well-known sportsman; it was
the advent of the carte-de-visite that made celebrity
photographs available in large numbers. They created a
popular broadening of the public sphere and exacerbated
the expectation that well-known fi gures would have a
publicised existence.
Celebrity photographs had both an individual and
collective agency. They were notable for their collective
agency because, through their widespread circulation,
they went beyond the scope of other graphic media like
wood-engraving and lithography. Their ubiquity helped
to provide a collective experience of any one individual.
Thus, for example, photography was instrumental in
creating the familiar and iconic image of Queen Victoria
in her widow’s weeds. Signifi cantly though, celebrity
photographs were also notable for the intimate rela-
tionship they generated between individual consumers
and well-known fi gures. The collection of celebrity
photographs helped to reinforce an individual’s sense of
themselves as belonging to an imagined national com-
munity. Compared to existing graphic media, the lens
of the camera proffered a more authentic and affective
relationship with the distinguished sitters so depicted.
In Britain, the fi rst attempts to publish photographs
of famous fi gures took place in the second half of the
1850s. One notable venture was that by Maull and
Polyblank, who published a series of Photographic
Portraits of Living Celebrities. The first issue ap-
peared in May 1856, and the series was subsequently
published in monthly instalments up to October 1859.
Each issue included a mounted albumen print, 19.5
cm × 14.5 cm, accompanied by a biographical notice.
Maull and Polyblank’s publication set the format for