Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
I'm guessing they're siblings, but I can't say for sure. This early cabinet card photo came from a collection of musical ephemera in Boston, Massachusetts. (Two other posts featuring photos from the same collection are Music and baseball in the forest and "Waldfreunde" Mandolin Orchestra (1922).) Do their outfits suggest any particular place of origin? Despite... Continue Reading →
This CDV (carte-de-visite) came from an antique shop in Massachusetts. CDVs began to decline in popularity in the 1870s with the advent of larger cabinet cards, but the format remained in use until about 1900. The albumen print process was used initially for both formats.
Informal early photos of musicians are surprisingly rare. On the other hand, musical instruments have often appeared in formal portraits. The postcard below was made some years after the photo above.
Tokens of Companionship 
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