Figure 1.-- This 1896 cabinet card of the Lincoln School shows some changes. It is a larger size card ( 7" x 10" card and 5 1/2" x 7 3/4" photo). It does no appear to be an albumen print. The margins are expanded. And there is no studio information or printing of ny type on the front or back.

Cabinet cards for several decades had the same size and styled mounts. Suddenly around the turn-of-the 20th century we see major changes in the mounts. We have no idea why this change occurred just at this time and so suddently. We suspect the increasing popularity of the family snapshot was a factor. What ever the reason, we suddenly see a great variety of shapes and sizes as well as changes in colors. While the major shift occurred at the turn-of-the century, we do see some of the new styled cards in the late-1890s decade beginning about 1895. The card here was dated 1899 (figure 1), but we see some of these new cards a few years earlier. We do not see all of the new styles and colors in he late 890s. In fact almost all of the early examples are white shades including cream, a color popular with the classic cabinet cards at the time. But we do notice changing styles. The most popular change was a slightly larger card with wider margins. The card here is a good example is also a good example of this. This was quite starteling give how similar the cards were for over 30 years.

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Created: 11:46 PM 11/19/2018
Last updated: 11:46 PM 11/19/2018