15 Dec Good Old Albumen! A Look into Albumen Prints and Their Impact on Photo History
Get the Printer Friendly Version
Download a PDF of this article to save your device or print for offline reading.
When photography first came onto the scene, there were a few visionaries who saw its commercial potential. In their visions, photography was more than art; they wanted to use it to make money and build businesses. Daguerreotypes and other early forms of photography had their merits, but they were costly and took a long time to produce. In the words of Mary Lou, “There is always someone who wants to make a product faster and cheaper.” Thus, albumen prints were born.
Albumen plates and prints were game-changers in photography. With this new process, photographers could increase print production by almost 10000%. Instead of making 3 or 4 positives from a negative, they could make hundreds. People could collect photographs of famous figures in their day. For example, Sojourner Truth sold carte de visites, a form of albumen prints, to help fundraise for the “first Michigan Colored Infantry fighting in the Civil War.” She copyrighted her image by registering her carte de visites as engravings. She made a living off of selling her likeness and used proceeds to donate to various causes.
Debuted by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard in 1850, albumen prints were used between 1850 through 1900. Today, they remain a cherished piece in photo collections. But what is an albumen print?
What is An Albumen Print?
In Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation, Bertrand Lavédrine describes albumen prints as:
An albumen print is a positive photograph with an albumen binder layer that holds a silver image and is supported on a sheet of paper.
The image is printed out, toned with gold, and then fixed and washed. The image tones range from brown to purple to bluish black depending on the exposure, the processing, and especially the toning.
The albumen binder layer is a mixture of egg whites and salt. Rag paper is floated in this mixture and then dried. A 12% solution of silver nitrate is applied to the albumen layer and dried in the dark until ready for use. When ready, the paper and the negative are exposed to the sun before being toned, fixed, and washed. The prints have a coating on top–sometimes with wax or varnish–and are mounted on cardboard. An albumen print is thin and can curl, so the board provided extra stability.
Common albumen print sizes and formats include:
- Carte de visite: 2 1/2” x 4 – 4 ¼”
- Cabinet Card: 4 ¼” x 6 ½”
- Stereograph: 3 ½” x 4 ½ – 7”
Albumen plates are similar to albumen prints. The silver salts are attached to the glass using an egg-white mixture. These were not as popular as the prints due to their long exposure times. A long exposure means the subject has to remain completely still until it is complete. With portraits, photographers ran the risk of showing too much movement in their subjects. However, the level of detail albumen plates provided was amazing for architectural photography.
Albumen plates and prints could be prepared in advance. This sped up the production process for photographers. With the albumen layer already applied, they only needed to prepare a silver nitrate bath before starting. According to Lavédrine, one German company “consumed more than six million eggs per year” for photochemistry. That’s a lot of eggs.
As fascinating as albumen prints were, this process has its own set of issues.
Issues with Albumen Prints
The biggest issue in the late 19th century and today is fading. Photographers noticed how albumen prints faded or shifted in color from purple to brown. The paper turned yellow, and the highlights–the areas that are lighter in the photo such as a face or collar–often faded first. This happened because of environmental factors or from the printing process.
In The History of Photography, Beaumont Newhall notes, “Improper fixing, inadequate washing out of residual chemicals, contamination by acids and sulfur compounds in mounting boards and the adhesives used to attach silver prints to them all too frequently caused the images to fade.”
This resulted in unstable images. Photographers shared formulas in publications such as Scientific American to help return albumen prints to a rich purple tone. This may have worked in 1900, but today’s images are far too fragile to attempt any type of toning adjustments to the original. In one article in Scientific American from 1892, a photographer banned albumen prints from their studio because of their instability. In a hilarious remark, the author writes:
Good old albumen! It has served us well during its reign; and, in the prospect of its being sooner or later deposed, we must endeavor to overlook demerits inseparable from its nature, and cherish its memory as that of an old friend who has rendered us good service.
Today, albumen prints suffer from the same issues, except with a twist. The photos still fade and shift in color as they deteriorate. However, due to their age, these prints are fragile and break easily. The glossy surface can easily craze. As humidity shifts from high to low, the emulsion expands and contracts accordingly. If this process happens over and over and over again over many years, the surface will crack with thousands of tiny lines running through the emulsion. This process is called crazing. If the photo has suffered enough crazing, little pieces of the photo will fall off or rub away. Albumen prints can be eaten by bugs or have foxing, a reddish-brown stain.
What do you do with an albumen print? How do you protect and preserve these images?
How to Care for Albumen Prints
In many cases, the original print cannot be restored or fully repaired. A conservator can stabilize your original, but the hard truth is that albumen prints will continue to degrade. Your best solution is to copy and restore your image. Even if you like the way your photo looks right now, it will not look the same as it ages. In 1980, James M. Reilly wrote that by the year 2055, “not a single albumen print will at all resemble its original appearance.” In 2023, that’s a much scarier year than it was in 1980.
To protect your albumen prints, you need to keep them in a place with stable humidity and the appropriate archival storage. The Library of Congress recommends storing images around 70 degrees Fahrenheit or below with 30-50% humidity. Gaylord Archival suggests using “polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene, which are all safe plastics for archival storage.” They also write:
An image that will not be referred to often should be stored in a paper enclosure for maximum protection against light. The most recent ISO standards advise storage of all types of photographs in buffered paper, although some archivists and curators prefer to use unbuffered materials for color prints, albumen prints, and cyanotypes. All paper enclosures should be acid-free and lignin-free.
When framing, you should ensure your frame has UV-protectant glazing and a conservation seal. We recommend digitizing the original before framing; once an albumen print is framed, it should be left in the frame. You don’t want to disturb an antique photo once it is framed and properly housed.
The albumen print holds a fascinating place in photography history. In addition to the commercial effects, albumen prints contributed to the surge in photo albums in the 19th century. These photos lived on once the crayon portrait was invented and came into fashion. Good old albumen! We continue to honor and preserve these interesting images today.