Figure 1.--This American large format cabinet card was 8 x 10 inches with medium-sized margins. Thanks to the slate the girls are holding, we know that the portrait was taken in October 1891. We know nothing else about the portrait except what can be decided from the image. It was a primary school and the brick building shows that it was a school in a town. We don't know what to make of the wooden plank walkway. This looks to be a single class, so it would have been a fairly large school. Note the plain tan-colored mount without any studio information. A few had studio information, but not very many. This eems to have been fairly standasrd for these large-format cards during the 19th century, although a large portion of the examples we have found coime from the 1890s. .

The size and format can help date these old images which is important for HBC's assessments. Most old photograophs are not dated. Some have dated and other information written on the back, but most do not. The dates are an imprtant aspect of assessing fashion trends. But as we hasve found a few dated cards, we can estanlish the chronological ranges of these larger cards. So far e hve fojnd only a few of gthese dated cards. Mos we have found so far are from the 1890s, but some undated cards look to date to the 80s. This is only a preliminary assessment which we hope to refine as HBC expands. This is a little complicated, because not only are we talking sbout the size of the mount, but the margins on the mount varied. Some cards did not have margins, but these are rare. The portrait on the previous page about 1892-95 had a wide margin. We note another school portrait taken in 1891 (figure 1). Here we are sure about the date becuse giels are holding a slate with the date. While we can use to an dextebt date the images, unlike other canionet cards, these lasrge-foermat cards do not have the studio information that enables us to tell where the photographs were taken.

The 1860s

The albumen process was first used in America in the very early-1860s (about 1861). It first was used to produce the CDV, a small sized card, about 4 x 2.5 nches. This would become the dominant format in Europe, but in the United States the cabinet card, another albumen print, about 6.5 x 4.25 in appeared (1866). The cabinet card quickly replaced the CDV as the standard American formt during the the late-10th century (1870s-90s). These wee standard sizes, there were only minor variatiins in these sizes. We have not yet found examples of the larger sized cards from the 1860s. We can not say that none exist, but we can say that they were not very common.

The 1870s

Larger albumen formasts appeared (1870s). They were a small fraction of the portraits taken. But they do exist. They are the Boudoir cabinet card, about 8.5 x 5.25 inches and Imperial cabinet card, about 9.75 x 6.75 inches. We are not sure about margin sizes. We do not yet have examples from the 1870s. .

The 1880s

More size variants appeared. These did not have spercial names.

The 1890s

We have found quite a few of these large format cabinet cards from the 1890s. The large size cabinet card portrait of a primary school class hereisn a good example (figure 1). It was taken in 1891. We know that because of the slate the girls are holding. We know nothing else about the oortrait except what can be decuded fron the image. It was a primary school and the brick building shows that it was a school in a town. We notice various settings for these large-sized cards such as the family home with the family, but school photographs were becoing the most common. It obviusly was not taken in a studio. Notice the realtively small borders. And the brown/tan colored mount usually withoutnstudio information that we usually see with these mounts. that we commonly see with these large cabinet cards. The card was 8 x 10 inches, one of the more popular large sizes. We begin to see more of these large outdoor images in the 1890s, but they were still relatively rare. The increasing popularity of school photography helpd expand the demand. The large sizes were needed, becausev indivifual children rather get lost in a class of any size. It is only with the Kodak Brownie and similar systems that photography significantly expands outside the studio (1900).

The 1900s

School photography by the turn of the 20th century was a well established tradition. We do not see many individual school portraits, but class photographs or full small school portaits were very common. Here a large format portrait was needed to capture individuals so that they could be recognized. But we see fewer large format portraits like this one picturing a family in front of their homes. The reason of course is the Kodak Brownie (190) This made the family sbapshot possible and Americans could take endless snapshots around the family home. Not so of course at school. Another photographic format appeared in the 1900s, the standard-ized postcard-back back photograph. All of which affected the popularity of the cabinet card.

The 1910s

The 1920s

The 1920s was the last year that we see any apreciable numbers of cabinet cards. And this includes the large format cards. We have not yet found a cabinet card dated later than the 1920s. The cabinet card format after many decaded was going out of style. And this affected the opularity of these large-sized cabinet cards. We see highly decorated cards, apparently an attemp tom improve their popularity, but we do not these large cards with highly decorated mounts. Thy continued to have plain mounts, often with wide borders. We see some studio informastion, but we do not have enough examples archivd yet to make any general assements. Most of the examples we have found cintinue to be hool portraits. Brownish shades tend to be the most common mount colors.

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Created: 1:47 AM 10/25/2022
Last updated: 7:55 PM 9/27/20233