The ninety-five portraits within this gallery portray acquaintances of pioneering Wisconsin scientist and antiquarian Increase Allan Lapham (1811-1875). All are from an album of carte-de-visite photographic portraits collected from 1862-75 and depict many notable 19th century geologists and botanists — and a handful of authors and artists — from America and Europe. This album functions as a photographic component to the Wisconsin Historical Society's expansive Increase Allan Lapham Papers, 1825-1930. More than merely helping put a face to a name, however, it adds rich and personal complexities to its enormous textual counterpart. As such, these photographs — featured here, with selections from his album notes — may be used as a primary resource in their own right to better understand Lapham's 19th Century world.

Trading carte-de-visites was an immensely popular activity during this period, and many people had albums of this sort. What’s more, the album was not Lapham's direct undertaking, but rather a project of his two daughters, Julia and Mary. In numerous letters within the Lapham collection at WHS, Mary or Julia offer a carte of their father in exchange for one of his colleagues’. More frequently, however, Lapham himself would request a portrait on behalf of his daughters, often amidst more scholarly discussions of mosses or lichens.

Evidently, however, even this practice was not specific to Lapham. Botanist John Torrey, confessed in a 1865 letter, “Requests for photographs have been neglected more than other letters, because I had none that my daughter wants consent to be given away,” and later added that “…I, too, have an album for botanists, and would be pleased to have his to place in it.” Nonetheless, considering the size of this album, as well as the prominence of the scientists featured within it (it is nearly a who’s who of 19th century scientific world), it remains a strong testament to Lapham’s scope as a public figure. View the Gallery >

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