Cartomania: Sensation, Celebrity, and the Democratized Portrait

“Sensation” in the early 1860s was more than just a series of scandalous novels. Critics hurled the insult at any object that courted novelty, from mouthwash to photographs. This essay examines an aspect of sensation’s visual culture in “carto-mania,” the craze for cartes-de-visite that inspired the creation and collection of millions of small photographic portraits. The carte introduced a new kind of celebrity, one based on image, notoriety, and a fleeting kind of fame familiar to us from today’s tabloid culture. The greatest sensations were generated by cartes of questionable women—actresses, courtesans, and female criminals. Like the sensation novel, the carte upended traditional divides of class and gender by foregrounding powerful women of dubious backgrounds.