Among the many rich sources of visual material in RBML are Thomas Carlyle’s photograph albums. The seven albums in RBML’s collection are typical of the 19th century and include primarily carte-de-visite, or photographic calling cards, that were popular at the time. These cards were used by individuals similarly to contemporary business cards, but cards with images of actors, writers, or other celebrities were available for purchase.

As a historian and prominent member of British intellectual culture, Carlyle’s album includes images of many well know 19th century figures, such as John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Giuseppe Mazzini and others. The sample page on the right shows Manzzini (lower right), an unidentified figure (lower left), and two perhaps more familiar figures in the upper row, Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth [click the image to see an enlargement].

Carlyle’s juxtaposition of the assassinated President and his assassin suggests that even while adding cartes-de-visite to his personal photo album, he was ever the working historian. The Carlyle photograph albums are available to today’s scholars and historians in the RBML reading rooms.