The inscription on page one indicates that Jane Rugg Bandfield of Chard, England, gave this photograph album to her son, Thomas John Bandfield, in London, England, in April 1870, before his departure for the United States. The volume (16cm x 14cm) contains 42 carte-de-visite portraits of Bandfield family members and acquaintances, both men and women. A later photographic print with a picture of an unidentified man, possibly Thomas J. Bandfield, is laid into the volume, as is an envelope addressed to Edna Bandfield of Portland, Michigan, Thomas Bandfield's daughter. The envelope has captions for most of the album's cartes-de-visite. A few individuals posed with children. One carte-de-visite has a photograph of a painted silhouette, and another shows "Four old Englishmen," otherwise unidentified. The subjects were photographed in studios in England. Some subjects may appear more than once.
Charles Bandfield (1797-1882) and his wife, Jane Rugg (d. 1884) lived in Chard, England, where they had four children: Elizabeth E., Thomas John (November 30, 1845- 1927), Edith E. (d. 1881), and John. Thomas J. Bandfield was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker and later worked in London, where he lived until moving to the United States in 1870. He settled in Portland, Michigan, where he became a furniture manufacturer. On September 23, 1873, Bandfield married Annis White of Jackson, Michigan. Their four children were Edna J., Harrold Gillespie, Arthur W., and Edith L.
