Figure 1.--This is one of the new style cabinet card mounts that appeared just before the turn-of-the 20th century. This one was taken in 1903 in Lewenton, Maine. Note the brown color and simulated molded frame and impressed studio logo in the lower right hand corner. Notice how plain it was, nust more elaborate designs appear after World ar I in the 1920s and 30s, although the numbers decline.

We believe almost all of these new style cabinet cards date to the 1900s, but we do not yet have a complete chronology. So far we have found these new sized mounts mostly from the 1900s. The precise chronology thus depends on the specific style. The earliest we have found dates to 1897. We also note some from the 1910s. We have not found any grom the 1920s, but it is possible that there were some. We note very few of the new styles of caninet cards in the 1890s. The earliest one we have found so far was taken in 1897, but some may have been made a little earlier. It thus seems that basically they appeared around the turn-of-the 20th century. The vast majority were made in the 1900s. We also see the old style after the turn of the century, almost always in the 1900s. After the turn-of- the century we fewer of the classic style cabinent cards and more of the new styles. By the end of the decade we see far fewer cabinet cards than was common in the 1890s, primarily of the new portrait types. Thus the 1900s have quite a mix of cabinet cards. By the 1910s we only see the new style of cabinet cards, but we see many postcards and paper frames as well. There were several diifferent styles of these new style cabinet cars.

The 1890s

We note very few of the new styles of cabinet cards in the 1890s. The earliest one we have found so far was taken in 1897, but some may have been made a little earlier. It thus seems that basically they appeared around the turn-of-the 20th century. The classic style continued to dominte the 1890s, but we see a few new styled mounts.

The 1900s

We believe almost all of these new style cabinet cards date to the 1900s, but we do not yet have a complete chronology. So far we have found these new sized mounts mostly from the 1900s. The 1903 caninet card here was taken in 1903 (figure 1). The precise chronology thus depends on the specific style. The vast majority were made in the 1900s. We also see the old style after the turn of the century, almost always in the early 1900s. After the turn-of- the century we fewer of the classic style cabinent cards and more of the new styles. By the end of the decade we see far fewer cabinet cards than was common in the 1890s, primarily of the new portrait types. Thus the 1900s have quite a mix of cabinet cards.

The 1910s

The 1920s

We have not found some of new cabinet cards from the 1920s. The styling and framing dvices were much gancier than the early-20th century cabinet card mounts. They could be quite elaborate. Quite different than we at first see being used for the new style cabinet cards. We see much smaller numbers thn we saw t the hight of the populrity of cabinnt cards in the 19th century. We do not see a lot of caninet cards in the 20s, but we do see some.

The 1930s

The 1930s is the last decade that we see cabinet cards. We see a few in the early 30s. The ones we see have elaborate decoration and or framing. The framing was done both with colors and impressed designs. Some were done more as frames with back stands. We do not see any after 1935, although there mat hve been a few. They were done in sizes larger than the classic cabinet card. The ones we have noted are 6.5 x 9.5 in. They sem to have been popular for formal portraits sych as First Communions, although we have only a few examples with hich to begin our assessment. We see different colors being used in the designs and framing. Get and brown seem to be the predominant colors.

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Created: 10:05 PM 4/27/2009
Last updated: 10:34 PM 2/21/2018