How to identify the negative print of a card de visite within an old autograph Album?

[Rebecca Talbot]

Dear all,

in 2018 I`ve purchased an autograph Album dating back to the year 1862. Yesterday I flipped through the Sarah Dobbs`s autograph Album and it came to my attention that there must have been a Card de Visite laid into the Album which is now lost. The Card de visit must have been in the Album for a very very long time as on the opposite side of the page there is like a negative print. It is only like a shadow but letting the light shine through the page you can slightly see an image. The question is now if there is a possibility\ a technique with which the image can be made visible. I do attach screenshots of the page. Any idea is hihgly appreciated.

Thanks and regards, Rebecca 

[Jamie Carstairs]

Hi Rebecca

All I can suggest (which you've probably already thought of) would be to photograph the page with quite a strong light behind it, shining through the page. Then play around with the image in Photoshop or similar, trying out different contrast/brightness/saturation combinations, and perhaps other settings such as posterization, until you find the one that shows up the latent image best. 

Jamie

[Ailna Beithe Martin]

Jamie Carstairs said:

Hi Rebecca

All I can suggest (which you've probably already thought of) would be to photograph the page with quite a strong light behind it, shining through the page. Then play around with the image in Photoshop or similar, trying out different contrast/brightness/saturation combinations, and perhaps other settings such as posterization, until you find the one that shows up the latent image best. 

Jamie