Henry Altemus Company

Altemus and Company first published photographic albums in 1862. During the next thirty years it published numerous elegant albums in many different styles. Although many albums from this time period can be easily identified as Altemus productions since they have the Altemus and Company imprint, a number of their albums had no imprint. These albums tend to blend in with the albums of the numerous other photographic album publishers.

In 1862 two Altemus ads appeared in the American Publisher's Circular and Literary Gazette. The earlier ad in March and April revealed a number of different album styles. The variety was quite extensive. Beginning in May, 1862 a new ad appeared. At this time 34 basic albums were described in addition to 5 "pocket size" albums. Of great interest is that the albums could be obtained in velvet as well as the various leather designs. Here are three examples of the earliest photographic albums:

In 1863 Henry and Samuel Altemus became the assignees of a patent of John Mets. This patent gave Altemus the right to use the special hinged back design for their photographic albums. Of note is that albums using this special design have the Altemus & Company imprint on the title page along with a line that says patented July 21, 1863. It appears that albums which do not use the patented hinge back design have no imprint. See examples below.

Thus, identifying those early albums as being published by Altemus is extremely difficult. Some of these latter albums have been seen with the blue informational card which is shown here and identifies Altemus as the publication company. I have seen three different cards as of this time. Two which mention the hinge-back design and one which does not. It is my belief that all of the photographic albums that Altemus & Company published originally came with one of these cards. This cannot be substantiated however.

1a	1b	2a	2b
3a	3b

By 1864 Altemus was touting its special photographic album design. "It having the advantage of laying open perfectly flat..." Altemus had the patent for the "hinged back" design. As described by Altemus--" each leaf is attached to a small rod covered with morocco forming a separate hinge of its own, admitting the book to be opened to its full extent without danger of the slightest injury". Prior to 1863 and the new design the Altemus albums of course did not have the patented special hinges. These non specially hinged albums were quickly phased out.

By 1867 the Altemus photographic album was a big seller. Advertisements noted Altemus' blank books as well as their Photograph Album Manufactory at the Race Street Address. In fact other commentators were describing Altemus as "one of the largest bookbinderies and Photograph manufactories in the United States". By 1868 the original list had been greatly expanded. Although still listing the earlier albums, now numerous styles of the hinged back albums were advertised. Also noted in ads were Tin Type Albums and Cabinet Albums.

Here are several pictures of photographic album covers. Remember that albums came in various sizes ranging from an album that could hold just one picture on a page to albums that held two pictures horizontally on a page to large albums with four pictures on a page. Any cover could be seen with any spine. Also any size album could be seen with any cover or spine.

By the late 1880's there were several hundred different covers available on the photo albums.

As the production of Bibles and later books became the mainstay of the Altemus business, photographic albums gradually became an afterthought. In the 1880's many formats of albums were still noted. New styles with a single centrally placed clasp were now combined with covers that were no longer just decorative. Some of the covers had writing that said- "Our Friends", "Portraits Our Friends", "Portraits", etc. Many new styles were seen.

By 1889 there were no photographic Albums seen in the Altemus catalogues. By 1892 even the mention of Altemus Photographic Albums had been removed from the front of the catalogues. At last these elegant albums were no longer in production. The end of an era for Altemus. The more cheap, simple albums produced by Altemus in the 20th century are noted in the next section.

The latest group of photographic albums were published in the late teens and twenties. These albums were quite a departure from the much more elegant earlier ones. Now the albums' cloth covers had either sewed backs or the so-called extension backs tied together with a shoelace like cord. The pages (leaves) are light cardboard on which pictures can be taped- not like the previous albums in which photos were inserted into the thick pages.

There are different styles based on the size of the cover and the number of leaves.
The numbering below is from the Altemus catalogue. It is presumed but not known whether the missing numbers below (100, 400, 500) represented other albums at one time.

#200

#200

#600