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example of this. Photographs were for sale in different
sizes and mounted on pasteboard or doubleweight paper
in postcard format or in leather cover binding with gilt.
Besides the landscapes he took photographs of thermal
baths, hotels, mountain climbers’ refuge, restaurants and
holiday resorts as these had become part and parcel of
the steadily growing new middle class, and also fi t well
into the dynamic development of Upper Hungary in the
19th century. A publication of photographic series in
those days, which focused on the natural and historical
values of Hungary was not only considered a very mod-
ern innovation and a good business adventure, but also a
national obligation. After having produced a number of
rewarding publications, in 1882 Károly Divald wanted to
start publishing a series of books on the artistic heritage
of Upper Hungary. Unfortunately, due to the indifference
of scientifi c circles and the lack of a suffi cient number
of subscribers he could not carry out this plan.
Károly Divald on his father’s side was born in a
middle class family. His father, János Ferdinánd Divald
(1787–1845) was a well-known botanist and forester
of Hont and Zólyom counties. Two of his sons, Adolf
Divald and József Divald, were also very successsful in
forestry and mining. Károly Divald, however, did not
follow the footsteps of his brothers: he made good use of
his knowledge in the new fi eld: photography. He pursued
his studies at the Lyceum in Eger, and after fi nishing
high school he went to Vienna where he received his di-
ploma in pharmacology and chemistry, on 17 July 1855.
Subsequently he worked as an assistant in Eperjes. Here
he married Borbála the daughter of a wealthy patrician,
Lajos Steinhübel. Three of his sons, Lajos (1861–1931),
Károly junior (1858–?) and Adolf (?–1931) became pro-
fessional photographers, and worked together with their
father under the aegis of family enterprise. The fourth
son of Divald senior, Kornél (Eperjes 1872–Budapest
1931), became a widely known researcher of Medieval
art and also an excellent photographer.
Károly Divald started photography in 1860 in a shed
in the backyard of his house in Bártfa. Soon his phar-
macy was known not for medicine however but for pho-
tographs. In 1862, Divald, as a result of severe fi nancial
diffi culties, sold his pharmacy and chose photography
as the means of living for the rest of his life. After many
years of hardships, in 1871 his fi nancial situation was
consolidated and due to his wife’s dowry he moved
into a house in Eperjes. This, under the name of Divald
Institute, became the center of his business ventures. The
building served as a portrait studio, reproduction press,
publication center, landscape-shop, and family home.
Apart from portrait photography, which provided him
with steady income, he continued his photographic ex-
periments with great enthusiasm in High Tatra. Accord-
ing to the rules of contemporary outdoor photography
he used large sensitized sheets of glass processed with
a colloidal solution in order to achieve high resolution.
Developing the negatives in those days was not easy, and
it had to be done rather quickly after the photograph was
taken. Often, the photographer had to carry the photo-lab
on his back throughout his tour. It is for this reason that
Károly Divald recruited a small group of 10–20 people
from neighbouring villages for a few days to help him.
It stands to reason that under these circumstancies the
expeditions of Károly Divald often enden up in failure
due to the capricious alpine climate.
Divald’s work was closely connected to the Carpath-
ian Society of Hungary, founded in 1873, which created
favourable conditions for tourism by using the results
of scientifi c exploration of High Tatra through the pub-
lication of guide-books, and also by building tourist
routes and mountain climber’s refuges. All these things
proved to be very fruitful for Divald since he received
more orders and made more acquaintances. He took
part in the work of the Society, of which he also was a
founding member, fi rst as a photographer and later as
a publisher with the benefi t of cheaper printing costs.
He doggedly followed the explorers and was among the
fi rst photographers to take pictures of the famous, and
also World Heritage listed, stalactite cave of Aggtelek in- It was also Divald who took photos of the stalactite
cave of Szepesbéla in 1881.
It was due to his great interest in landscapes and
townscapes that led Divald to engage in typographical
reproduction. For this reason, with his son Károly junior,
he went to Münnich in 1877 to study collotype there.
This was followed by another journey to Dresden in
1879, where they could see high-speed printing at work.
Returning home in tha same year, they opened the fi rst
high-speed printing collotype press in Hungary. They
were able to print almost everything from architectural
drawings to typographical reproductions. After 1879
the Divald Institute took on the name of Károly Divald
and Sons Co. Their fi rm won the monopoly in portrait
photogaphy. In addition to the studio they had Eperjes,
there were also studios in Bártfa, Igló, Bártfafürdö and
Tátrafüred, where they worked mostly during summer
months.
Károly Divald in 1890 at the age of 61, handed his ex-
tensive business network over to his sons. Lajos Divald
inherited the Divald Institute at Eperjes, and Adolf Di-
vald the studio and postcard-shop at Bártfafürdö. Károly
Divald junior took over the studios at Igló, Késmárk and
Tátrafüred, but soon his interests and strengths were
focused on the capital city. After moving to Budapest
he opened reproduction presses and a publishing house,
and in 1909 he founded a company of shareholders.
Apart from Eperjes, Budapest stood more and more
in the focus of the activities of Divald photographers
not so accidentally. In the fi rst year of WWI, Budapest
as the capital city of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy,