Figure 1.-- This is one of the many new styles and sizes of cabinet card that appeared at the turn-of-the 20th century. Notice the very large marfins and lack of studio information at the botton. The size was also different, 3 1/2 by 5 1/4 inches--somewhat smller than the classic cards.

At the turn of the century we suddenly see a greater variety of sizes and dimensions. Many have cards with relativeky small images, some we do not often see with the classic style mounts where the photographic print covers most of the mount, except the very bottom. Most of these new styles appear after the turn-of-the century, but we find a few examples in the very-late 1890s. The number of these new-style mounts is very limited before the turn-of the century. Of course dated images in general are very few in genral, so it is possible that some of the undated images were taken before the turn-of-the century. We are, however, fairly confident that there were not many, because almost all of the dated images we have found are in the very-late 189s (1898-99). The cabinet portrait of Harry McFarlane here is a good example and is dated 1899 (figure 1). We are not sure why, but the Kodak Brownie producing snapshots may have been a factor (1900). We also see the presentation of the studio information changing. Sometimes it was embossed and almost always smaller and less prominent. Usually it was just the studio name. Some times we do not see the name of the satudio at all. The vast majority of these new mount formats appeared after the turn-of-the-century, but we see a few examples in the late-1890s. s a result this is a very useful chronological indicator.

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Created: 6:44 AM 7/23/2016
Last updated: 6:44 AM 7/23/2016