Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

Thomas J. Bandfield, a native of England, compiled carte-de-visite photographs of friends and family members in this album before moving to the United States in 1870.

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.