Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
This carte-de-visite photo has no information on it about who took it or where. I found it in Massachusetts, but assume it must have originated in Europe. In the 1860s and 1870s, European photographers began employing young people from their communities to dress in national costumes and pose against studio backdrops designed to represent local... Continue Reading →
In 2011 I bought an album of family snapshots from British Columbia. No one in the album is identified by last name, so I haven't been able to identify the family. Some of the photographs were taken during the years 1915-1917, according to handwritten annotations. A girl named Hazel appears in many of them, so... Continue Reading →
The young woman above is wearing a skirt that matches the flag behind her. She's also wearing ribbons on her shoulders, bodice and waist. But which flag is it? From 1807 until 1953, the flag of Wales was white with a red dragon at the center. The cabinet card was made by Alfred Betts (1829-1890)... Continue Reading →
This photograph was in a collection of materials dating to the years just before, during and after the First World War. Printed on plain paper larger than a postcard, my guess would be that it was taken after the war. On the back is a brief inscription in German: "Rumän. Bäuerinnen i. Sonntagsgewand" (Romanian countrywomen... Continue Reading →
The group above must have participated in a festival or celebration of some kind. The people in the group are wearing a variety of different outfits. The photo came from an estate in Texas, with no information about where it was taken or when. The back is blank. [Note: this post has been updated with... Continue Reading →
The group above isn't identified and the photo has faded quite a bit. The only information on the cabinet card is the name and address of the Chicago studio of William L. Koehne (1869-1965) and Charles F. Bretzman (1867-1934). The partnership between the two photographers began by 1894 and ended in 1899 or very early... Continue Reading →
When you first see this carte-de-visite from the early 1860s, you might get the feeling that something isn't quite right. That's because the four men in the photo are wearing clothes from a different era. I'm not sure, but I think they're dressed in styles from the period of the American Revolution, almost a century... Continue Reading →
When I saw this cabinet card from the United Kingdom, I immediately assumed it must have come from a Victorian production of Shakespeare's King Lear. The tragic play revolves around the relationship between the king and his youngest daughter, Cordelia. I spent some time looking for images of historical productions of the play, but found... Continue Reading →
If only we could see the colors of her dress! She must have made it to attract attention to her cause. Her hat has words sewn on it -- I can read LITTLE and HELPS -- so it may read EVEN A LITTLE HELPS. She's holding a donation box with words printed above a cross... Continue Reading →
This cabinet card came to me from Spokane, Washington, but it has nothing written or printed on it to indicate its origin. The costumes might be Norwegian (or Norwegian-American). The faded sepia print doesn't do them justice, but it's all that remains of their beauty and artistry.
This cabinet card portrait was made at the studio of Sweet & Kinloch in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute ("N.B." refers to North Britain). A genealogy of the Sweet Family in the West of Scotland identifies one of the studio owners as Charles Sweet (1864-1945). Born in Glasgow, Charles opened his studio in Rothesay in... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite is part of a series called "Costumes de Suisse," published around 1869 by French photographer Adolphe Braun (1812-1877). Braun's studio was in Alsace, France, in the village of Dornach, near the borders with Germany and Switzerland. Each photo in the series presents a young woman in a traditional costume from a particular Swiss... Continue Reading →
Tokens of Companionship 
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