Canadian Photography Types: Cabinet Cards


Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait is unidentified, but it does have a 1896 award seal. This mens that it was taken in 1896 or soon after. The style and size of the card is similar to the mounts common bedore the turn of the century. The greyish color is similar the the colors of the new mount styles that appeared at the turn-of-the 20th century. It may be that the new mpunt styles appeared a few years earlier in Canada. The studio was P.F. Pinsonneault in Three Rivers/Trois Rivieres in Quebec.

Cabinet cards also appeared in Canada soon after the CDV. We are not sure yet just when. Cabinet cards appeared in America in the mid-1860s (1866). We suspect that they appeared in Canada at the same time or soon after. They do not, however, seem to have been as common as in America. And we see the CDVs continuing to be popular in Canada longer than in America. We note the same trend in Britain. We are not yet sure about this. It may simply reflect our smaller Canadian archive and smaller Canadian population and thus smaller photographic industry. While we do not yet have early Canadian cabinet cards (1860s-70s), we have found later 19th century cabinet cards (1880s-90s) and they look very similar to American cards. Except for the studio identification information at the bottom of the card, it would be fifficuly to fiffentiate netween American and Canadian cards. This is important because if that is in effect the case, then the much more detailef information we have collected on American cabinet cards could be used to date Canadian cards. As in America, for some eason we begin to see major differences in cabinet card mount styles around the turn-of-the 20th century. Many of the new mount styles and colors we see are similar to the new styles we ee in America. This is a little difficult to track with any precision becaue we have so few dated Canadian cabinet cards, although other evices can be used to approximate the dates .

Classic-style Mounts

Cabinet cards also appeared in Canada soon after the CDV. We are not sure yet just when. Cabinet cards appeared in America in the mid-1860s (1866). We suspect that they appeared in Canada at the same time or soon after. They do not, however, seem to have been as common as in America. And we see the CDVs continuing to be popular in Canada longer than in America. We note the same trend in Britain. We are not yet sure about this. It may simply reflect our smaller Canadian archive and smaller Canadian population and thus smaller photographic industry. While we do not yet have early Canadian cabinet cards (1860s-70s), we have found later 19th century cabinet cards (1880s-90s) and they look very similar to American cards. Except for the studio identification information at the bottom of the card, it would be fifficuly to fiffentiate netween American and Canadian cards. This is important because if that is in effect the case, then the much more detailef information we have collected on American cabinet cards could be used to date Canadian cards.

New-style Mounts

As in America, for some reason we begin to see major differences in cabinet card mount styles and colors around the turn-of-the 20th century. We do not understand why these changes occurred at the turn of the century and so rapidly replaced the classi-ctyle nounts. There were not only new styles, but a muh wider variety of styles to chose from. We notice new sizes, new syles, new studio identifications, and new matting. Many of the new mount styles and colors we see are similar to the new styles we ee in America. This is a little difficult to track with any precision becaue we have so few dated Canadian cabinet cards, although other devices can be used to approximate the dates. There is some indication that the new style mounts appeared in Canada a few years before the United States, but at most there is only a few years difference.

Manufacturers

One question we are still unable to anser is who produced the nounts or CDVs, cabinet cards, an stereo view cards. We are not sure what comapnies and how many were involved. This would help explain similarities. We assume that they were produved in America and that Canadian studios imported them, but we have no actual details at this time.








HBC









Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Canadian photographic type page]
[Return to the Main Canadian photography page]
[Return to the Main Canadian page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQ] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]




Created: 7:05 PM 11/22/2016
Last updated: 6:42 PM 7/1/2019