Figure 1.--Here we see a CDV of Willie as a very young boy, 3 years & 9 months. The CDV is not dated, but as we know the the boy was born in 1873, we know the portrait was taken about 1877. Althoug he set is similar to 1860s CDVs. the lack of void, absence of ruling, frint studio idntification, and full image coverage of the card all show the major featurs of the 1870s changes.

The CDV did not immeiately disappear with the appearance of the cabinet card. We still see quite a number of CDVs in the 1870s, even though the cbinet card became the standard format. The CDV changed in the 1870s. Conviniently, the chnges occured roughly at the turn of the decade. This means that they can be used as a rough separation of CVs taken in the 1860s and 70s decades. Rounded corner mounts quickly became standard. The rounded corners were less susceptible to damage. we continue to see ruling being used for the framing the image and in more color, but gradually the rules disppear. We also see front printing of the stuio and city which became standaed in the front. This was stillusually done in small print with plain fonts, including all capital letters. We are not yet entirely sure about the frame rules. Back printing on the back began to be more complex. Very thick frmes rules were common (1874-80). We also se images without rule frames that fill most of the card (figure 1). Sets also began to change about 1870. Decorative backdrops and props appeared although as we see here we also see very plain sets tht look more kike the 60s. This increased as the decade progressed and we begin to see such elaborate sets that detracted from the phototgraph's subject. This trend varied from studioto studio. We still see some CDVs with very plain sets in the 1870s. This same trend can be observed with cabinet cards.

Created: 4:16 AM 1/4/2016
Last updated: 4:16 AM 1/4/2016