For sale is an original 1883 photograph of SUNDAY SCHOOL CHOIR from the Humberstone Road Wesleyan Sunday School Representative Choir. This photograph was taken after the choir was awarded first prize at a singing contest on April 21, 1883, at the Leicestershire Sunday School Union Industrial Exhibition. This amazing Victorian era choir portrait appears to be an Albumen print, one of the earliest methods of photography mounted paper prints. The photograph measures about 10 inches by 8 inches and is matted and framed. The printed text is believed to have been made contemporaneous to the photo. Photo is faded and is easy to view in dim light. A great collectible for anyone interested in early Americana or the history of photography.
Paper photographs are often classified according the emulsion used to coat the paper. The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard. Albumen prints were the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It used the albumen found in egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper and became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the 20th century, with a peak in the 1860-90 period. These prints were usually placed on very thin paper. Since the drying emulsion tended to cause the paper to curl, the papers were usually pasted to cardboard backings.
