Album Collection

From the 1860's, parallel to the appearance of standard-sized pictures, started the fashion of arranging pictures into albums. Following the visitor cards and cabinet-sized pictures, in the 1880's pictures with an elonged shape and phantasy names appeared on ornate cardboard paper. Pictures were not glued into the early photo albums but slided between the approprietly sized cuttings of the double album sheets. Some of the 19th century photoalbums is a real piece of art, with silver and copper ornaments.

Organising or leafing through the albums was a popular way to pass time.

Politician Ferenc Deák was given a photo album by his followers. Albums keep the pictures of the participants at the parliament of 1861, as well as the photos of ladies and of the products they were selling at the charity fancy-fair in 1864. Among the photos of friends and family one can often find the photos of politicians, writers, and artists. Making albums for famous politicians was fashionable for a long time, as the albums given to Mátyás Rákosi and János Kádár -both of which we have in our collection - prove.