Figure 1.-- This new style mount has texture framing, wide margins, and studio information in a small, very plain font. The portrait shows Richard Lancaster Witzleben in 1899. Many of the new style mounts did not have any studio informtion.

New style cabinet card mounts appeared at the turn of the century with many different sizes and styles. We see varied sizes, both smaller and larger and different styles. While the change occurred rather suddenly at the turn-of-the century, we do see a few examples from the 1890s. They are a very small proportion of the overall decade photogrphs, mostly from the later-90s. We have not yet found examples from the 1880s or even earkly-90s. Almost all the examples we have found come from the late-90s. We discussed this with a prominent internet photo dealer. He insisted that were numerous examples, we think because he wanted 19th century dates to improve his sales. Our experience is that the change did not magically occur on Januaey 1, 1900, but the the number of 1890s examples are was rather limited. This of course is a little difficult to assess because so many of the cards are not dated, but the evidence of the dated images found give us a basic reference point. The trend of cabinet cards can be easily followed as the photographic record is so extensive. The only problem is that most are undated. Here we will only consisdering dated cabinet cards we have found. Througout the late-19th century we see cabinet cards with mostly the same size, shape, and mount styles. This chaged at the turn-of-the century. We notice a few in the late-1890s. We do not notice these new style mounts in the early part of the decade. We see some cards begining to diverge somewhat in the mid-1890s. And we begin to see some of these cards at the end of the decade. The unidentified card here is a good example from 1898 (figure 1). This card was 5 3/8" x 6 1/2 inches, similar in size to the standard 19th century cabinet cards. This is the earliest new style mount we have found so far. There surely must be be earlier examples, but not much earlier as even late-1890s examples are rare.

Varied Styles

New style cabinet card mounts appeared at the turn of the century with many different sizes and styles. We think studios were having trouble competingm, especially when the Kodak Brownie made the family snapshot feasible for the average person (1900). We see varied sizes, both smaller and larger and different styles.

Chronology

While the change occurred rather suddenly at the turn-of-the century, we do see a few examples from the 1890s. They are a very small proportion of the overall decade photogrphs, mostly from the later-90s. We have not yet found examples from the 1880s or even early-90s. Almost all the early examples we have found come from the late-90s. We discussed this with a prominent internet photo dealer. He insisted that were numerous examples, we think because he wanted 19th century dates to improve his sales. Our experience is that the change did not magically occur on Januaey 1, 1900, but the number of 1890s examples are rather limited. This of course is a little difficult to assess because so many of the cards are not dated, but the evidence of the dated images found give us a basic reference point. The trend of cabinet cards can be easily followed as the photographic record is so extensive. The only problem is that most are undated. Here we will inly cionsusder rg datd caninet cards we hacve found. Througout the late-19th century we see cabinet cards with mostly the same size, shape and mount styles. This chaged at the turn-of-the century. We notice a few in the late-1890s. We do not notice these new style mounts in the early part of the decade. We see some cards begining to diverge somewhat in the mid-1890s.

1896

While we begin to see these new style cards atvthe cend of the decade, earlier examples are very rare. At this time the earliest example we have found dates to 1896. It seems to be a portrait to commemorate the breeching of an American boy. The portrait was taken May 4, 1896. He was Caroll Ebert Kelly who lived in Duluth, Minnesota, a hub for cargo shipments in the Great Lakes. This is interesting. We would expect that an imoportant chabnge in the style of these cabinet cards would have originated in the sylish big northeastern cities and not in a cultural backwater like Duluth. While thus may not have been the earlies of these new styles, our archive is large enough that we can condudentkly say it was close to the earliest.

1899

We begin to see some of these cards at the end of the decade. Niot very many, but we see some. n The unidentified card here is a good example from 1898 (figure 1). This card was 5 3/8" x 6 1/2 inches, similar in size to the standard 19th century cabinet cards. This is the earliest new style mount we have found so far. There surely must be be earlier examples, but not much earlier as even late-1890s examples are rare.

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Created: 10:34 PM 2/24/2018
Last updated: 4:39 AM 6/17/2023