Mid 19th century albumen prints (early photographs)

Albumen is the material found in egg whites, and used to make meringues. However in 1850 the Frenchman Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard invented a method creating a photographic image using egg whites as a binder, together with silver nitrate and other chemicals, and the albumen print was born. The albumen print became the dominant photographic printing process for the next fifty years, until the technique was superceded by the introduction of Kodak's Brownie camera. Characteristics of albumen prints are the surface gloss, a reddish brown or purple image tonings and sometimes a cracking of the albumen binder.