Figure 1.--Here we see a CDV made to look like a cabinet card. It is not dated, but the clothing, color of the mount, and whicker furniture all indicate that it was taken at the turn-of-the 20 century. It could have been the late-1890s, but more likely the early 1900s decade. The studio was Clark Photo in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

We only see a few CDVs into the early-20th century, albeit with changed mount styles. There are not very many, but we continue to see a few. We only see a handfull and we have a very substamtial American archive. The CDV had largely, but not entirely sdsappeared. Some were made to look like minature cabinet cards with colored mounts like cabinet cards. CDVs persisted in Europe to a far greater extent than was the case in Anerica. We are not sure why a client would chose a CDV. Presumably they were cheaper, but the the reduced cost of mterials wold not have been enbough to mke them much cheaper. And we note that at the turn of the 20th century, many new styles of cabinet cards appeares, several with smaller photiographic images than CDVs. American CDVs after the turn-of-the-century, however, are rare. They are a very small part of the photohrphs being taken in America, even a mall part of the studio portraits. As far aw we can tell, most studios did not even offer CDVs. Most of the 1900s CDVs we have found for some reason come from the New England and the wider Northeast.

Created: 10:59 PM 4/21/2022
Last updated: 10:59 PM 4/21/2022