There certainly was retouching available, especially if it was a portrait photograph. In those cases, the subject probably had a fair amount of powder or makeup as well.

There are other factors at work.

One is that these were mostly black and white photos. Before 1900, the color response very uneven, and so blues tended to come through brighter, and skin tones darker. Some photographers did their best to overexpose the print to get it back to real life.

Exposure times were long, depending on when and where you are asking about. Even slight movement tended to blur away some of the fine details of skin complexion. I've seen old photos where the baby in the picture had a hand drawn cartoonish face, simply because they didn't sit still.