{"id":33041,"date":"2025-12-30T01:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=33041"},"modified":"2025-12-26T01:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:53:17","slug":"bigger-is-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/bigger-is-better\/","title":{"rendered":"bigger is better …"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

the first Promenade photograph published in The Philadelphia Photographer, March 1875 by F.L. Stuber of Bethlehem, PA<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. Once the CdV size of photos ran its course, entrepreneurs used larger size carded photos to spark sales, culminating in the very large ‘promenade’ photos.<\/p>\n

An article by Bob Wilson highlights the history of carded photos starting with the CdV. Bob begins his story as follows. “The above title introduced an article on the second page of the January 1875 issue of The\u00a0<\/i>Philadelphia Photographer<\/i>.\u00a0The demand for portraiture\u00a0had been varying through the\u00a0years. In the early 1860s when the\u00a0cartes de visite (2 1\/2 x 4\u201d) were\u00a0first introduced, the demand was\u00a0quite strong.<\/p>\n

“The wet collodion\u00a0process combined with the new\u00a0size reduced the cost of portrait\u00a0photography, bringing it within\u00a0the budget of most people. But by\u00a0the mid 1860s, sales began to\u00a0wane, as most people had satisfied\u00a0their initial needs and the post\u00a0Civil War recession had depressed\u00a0the economy.<\/p>\n

“Photographers needed a new\u00a0novelty to entice customers back\u00a0to their studios. To do this, in late\u00a01866, the cabinet card (4 1\/4 x 6 1\/2\u201d) was introduced to North\u00a0America and this stimulated sales\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

“But cabinet cards eventually became common and with the\u00a0country in the midst of the enduring \u201cGreat Depression\u201d of the [18]70s, photographers once again\u00a0were looking for something fresh.<\/p>\n

“In late 1874, Mr I. W. Taber,\u00a0working in the studio of Mr G. D.\u00a0Morse in San Francisco, developed what they called the\u00a0Promenade Photograph. Edward\u00a0L. Wilson, editor of The Philadelphia Photographer<\/i>, displayed examples of Promenade\u00a0photographs at the December 2,\u00a01874 meeting of the Photographic\u00a0Society of Philadelphia, where\u00a0they ‘were examined and much admired by the members’.<\/p>\n

“Wilson appreciated the artistic\u00a0possibilities of the new format (4\u00a0x 7\u201d), and in the January 1875\u00a0issue of The Philadelphia\u00a0<\/i>Photographer<\/i>, ran the following\u00a0article: <\/span>A NEW SIZE – THE PROMENADE\u00a0PHOTOGRAPH [.]\u00a0This is a new style, noticed in our editorial\u00a0columns, designed by Mr I. W. Taber, with Mr G. D.\u00a0Morse, San Francisco.” …<\/span><\/p>\n

Members read all of this article and saw more illustrations in the issue 26-2 pdf file on the free member-only DVD\/thumb drive. See above\/at right to join. Address any membership queries to member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Come on out to our 2026 events \u00a0– many old photos likely available. Our first 2026 event will be the Jan 25, 2026 auction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. Once the CdV size of photos ran its course, entrepreneurs used larger size carded photos to spark sales, culminating in the very large ‘promenade’ photos. An article by Bob Wilson highlights the history of carded photos starting with the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[2017,220],"class_list":["post-33041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-article","tag-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33046,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33041\/revisions\/33046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}