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Josephine’s Album
Years: 1868-1878

NOTE: We have been lent the album - and discovered it belonged to Charles, NOT Josephine! We will be moving this page to be Charles’, adding photos of the album and more information. (May, 2023)

The following images are from an old album of carte de visite with a locking clasp discovered at estancia “La California” in the late 1960’s.  It must have belonged to one of Wilhelm & Josephine’s children as most of the photographs were taken in Oakland or San Francisco, California, between 1868 and 1874.  The names and dates of the people are written in block letters in pencil at the top of each page.  We do not know who identified the people in the photographs but it was most likely one of W&J’s grandchildren, the children of William O. Benitz living at “La California”.  Three of the pictures are labelled “Schreiber?”  i.e. John Schreiber.  If correct, (i) those photos would have been taken in Argentina, after 1875; and (ii) the album may then have belonged to daughter Josephine.

After its discovery, the album became the property of Corina Pryor as the eldest child of William A. Benitz.  Corina passed it on to her daughter Jill.  The following copies (scans) were very kindly provided to us by John, Jill’s son.

Note:  Many of the photos in this album are also found in Josephine Kolmer-Benitz’s album of CDVs.

A bit of history:  The “Carte de Visite” (abbreviated CdV or CDV) became enormously popular in the 1860’s and were exchanged among friends and visitors.  It was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker card (about the size of a calling card, approx.: 6.5 x 10 cm. or 2.5 x 4 inches).  In the 1870s, larger “Cabinet Cards” (approx.: 11 x 17 cm. or 4.5 x 6.5 inches) replaced CDVs.  Cabinet cards remained popular into the early 20th century, until replaced by Kodak’s Brownie camera & home snapshots.

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© Peter Benitz (Benitz Family)