The exhibition showcases the talents of some of Australia’s most enterprising photographers of the mid-19th century – along with characters such as the notorious Madame Sibly, a French-born mesmerist who bought land in Parkes before buying a store at Drake near Tenterfield in the mid 1880s.

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She was known for ‘manipulating heads’ as a phrenologist before packed houses in Sydney and Melbourne. While she was based in Parkes she toured NSW extensively, incorporating séances, phrenology, and hypnotisms into her sensational performances.

It is said she once induced a pair of men to fetch and eat a raw leg of lamb, thinking they were dogs while under hypnosis. Others were induced to fight, dance and act absurdly.

In later years she hosted ‘baby exhibitions’ in which prizes were awarded to children with the best mental and physical capacity.

Madame Sibly joins a host of other characters in Carte-o-mania! bringing the Victorian era back to life through carte de visite photographs.

“Each photograph is like a miniature world of its own with an incredible story embedded in it,” curator Joanna Gilmour said.

“The poses, the props and the fashions throw an intriguing light onto the world of the nineteenth-century studio, while the stories of the photographers and their subjects combine to create a rich and vivid archive of Australian society at a precise moment in time.

“Rich or poor, male or female, famous or infamous, powerful or anonymous: everyone was captured in these tiny photographs.

“What I love about Carte-o-mania! is its wit and its fun factor. All of the portraits in the show will be displayed in showcases and albums giving viewers the opportunity to get up close and immerse themselves in the photographs, which became part of a widespread collecting fad.”

Carte-o-mania! features a wide and quirky range of stories: from a man who raced ferries on foot from Sydney to Parramatta to sell hot pies to travellers at both ends of their journey; to a 12-year-old girl who survived being lost in the bush and was then leased to the Melbourne waxworks as a live exhibit.

The exhibition also profiles some of gold-rush Australia’s leading artists and entrepreneurs, showcasing the breadth, vigour and colour of Australian society and culture at the time. Many photographers struck pay dirt in Australia during the gold rushes: not by digging for gold, but by capturing the likenesses of the numerous folk who flocked to the goldfields in the hope of finding their fortunes.

Many took the opportunity to leave behind with their loved ones a carte de visite, the pocket-sized style of photograph which, for the first time, made portraiture accessible to the masses.

Not only did Australians begin to collect photos of their loved ones, they collected photographs of public figures such as Queen Victoria, who helped precipitate photography’s rising popularity by posing for cartes de visite herself.

Ms Gilmour has worked to piece together the lives of not only the subjects of this marvellous collection of carte de visites but the photographers too and they tell the story of regional Australia through boom and through bust in the 19th century.

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist c. 1879 James E Bray National Portrait Gallery Purchased 2017

You have the opportunity to win a special Carte-o-mania! getaway package including one night of accommodation on March 16 at the Crowne Plaza Canberra, lunch and a private tour of the exhibition with Joanna Gilmour.

To enter, readers are asked to write 200 words or less on the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection they would most like to see and why.

All portraits in the collection can be viewed on the gallery’s website portrait.gov.au. Entries are to be emailed to competition@npg.gov.au by 5pm Thursday, February 1 and must include a name and contact number.