Figure 1.-- The cabinet card mount here is a light color. I am not sure about the originalm color, perhaps white. The bottom is domne a little differently than most at the time, with all the printing to the right. Notice the classicalm looking fence. This unidentified Minnesota boy wears a summer kilt suit with a fancy long cut-away jacket. The cuffs are done in a military style and match the the front of the cut-away jacket. A white collar spreads out in back and he has a kind of bow tie, a style popular in the 1860s. There is a kind of basic sash which seemns to match the bow tie. He holds a dark straw boater with high sides. His outfit is completed with white long stockings which seem to have a dark band or bottom and high-top shoes. This cabinet card portrait was taken June 10, 1879. The boy is not named, but was 4 years old and 10 months. The studio name is something like Limurnnan in St. Paul.

In just a few years the cabinet card became the dominant photographic format in America. This was the case in the 1870s, especially by mid-decade. American consumers liked the larger size. The additional cost was minimal. While we still see quite a number of CDVs in the early-70s, the great bulk of the portaits taken in America during the 1870s-1890s were cabinet cards. CDVs continued to be very common in Europe, but much less so in America. We have no idea why this difference developed between America and many European countries. And we are not yet sure about differences among the various European countries. We also see quite a number of tin-types in the 70s. Mount styles and studio settings varied by decade. We mote a lot of dark-colored mounts, but there were light-colored mounts as well. Most cabinet cards had a studio logo at the botton left and the city and state at the botoom right. These were what we call classic late-19th century cabinet vards. We note a lot of out door settings in the portraits, including classical-looking pedestals and walls, often with mock folliage. Clothing styles can also help date the cards.

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Created: 1:34 PM 9/2/2013
Last updated: 1:34 PM 9/2/2013