The Documents and Archives Committee at the Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio recently completed an inventory of the Society’s cased images collection. The miniature case, is a little known art craft of the 19th century. It was an invention to hold early photographic portraits of people and scenes of America created shortly after the advent of photography in 1839 and lasted until about the end of the Civil War and the arrival of photographic Carte-de-Visite (CDV) cards.
During the height of the cased image popularity in the mid-1850s, almost every household, rich or poor, had one or more of these decorative cases proudly displayed for intimate viewing of cherished photographs. They were considered to be precious family heirlooms, something suitable to pass on for posterity.
Today, people can easily take as many photographs as they want. It’s hard to imagine a time when getting just one photograph was a difficult, time consuming event. Nor how fragile the resulting image could be. The desire to preserve the new photograph for future generations from damaging dust, dirt, scratches, and breakage, spawned a new industry in America: miniature cases made especially for the fragile photographs taken during the pioneer era of photography.
Although many of the cases became mass produced, all the different choices a customer could choose from for all the pieces that made up a case, made it a piece of art in its own right. The designs depicted on the cases reflect the artistic talents, thoughts, and feelings of this short time period in American history.
We hope you will enjoy looking at all the artistic details contained in the cased images collection of the Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio. See the links below. It is divided into two files: the inventory has all the details of the cases and clothing styles of the people, and the portraits section focuses on the photographs within the cases. Be aware it might take a while for the files to load, depending on your internet speed.
