Category Archives: Cabinet Cards

The respectable Victorian gentleman

Victorian gentleman with cane, top hat and mustache. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

Victorian gentleman with cane, top hat and mustache. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

No, you are not dreaming. I’m usually not a fan of facial hair but this portrait is so much what a mature Victorian gentleman should look like I just had to get it. Under the mustache this man was a handsome fella.

He looks noble with his gaze going up. Fascinating how facial hair can change one’s appearance. This gent was in his thirties at most but the mustache makes him look older. But yes, I love this one very much.

See, he looks younger now.

See, he looks younger now.

The moustaches are glorious, glorious. I have cut them short, and trimmed them a little at the ends to improve their shape. They are charming, charming. Without them, life would be a blank.” Edgar Allan Poe

I took this quote from a great BBC article explaining the reasons why Victorian men wore beards and mustaches. A fun good read. Thank you, Mr. Gillette, I’ll never see one of your disposable razors the same way again.

The back of this cabinet card is blank.

Creative Commons License


Mr. Timeless Elegance

Cabinet card portrait. Private Collection.

Kough & Leeper cabinet card portrait. Private Collection.

This very handsome gentleman from the 1880s is very smartly dressed. The striped tie is rather nice too.

No need to edit the contrast or erase scratches on this one. Like the timeless elegance of the sitter, this picture stood the test of time. The scalloped edges are golden too, truly a beautiful card which was kept in an album.

darkly-handsome-back

Photographer: Kough & Leeper. Fayette St. Uniontown, Pennsylvania.


1890s proud young man with a wide open wingtip collar

Cabinet card of young man. Private Collection.

Cabinet card of young man. Private Collection.

This fellow with the proud expression and very dark eyes is wearing a wide open version of the wingtip collar with a thin bowtie. Amazing how many variations of collars and bowties/cravats and ties existed…Men’s fashion was all about the accessories. This is a nice card in great condition, and with uncommon grooves on the edges.

Cabinet card.

1890s Cabinet card.

Photographer: E. Ostrander. Spring Green. Wisconsin. Blank back.

Creative Commons License
Digital restoration work titled 1890s Proud Young Man With A Wide Open Wingtip Collar by Caroline C. Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.


The smiling Victorian bride with her handsome groom

Wedding photo cabinet card. Private Collection.

1890s-1900s wedding photo cabinet card. Private Collection.

This beautiful bride is smiling in her long wedding dress with the puffy sleeves at the elbows. Can I say I love the groom’s shoes? I love his shoes! They look made for each other these two.

Photographer: Mangold. Blair. Nebraska


The happiest little cabinet card on earth

'The happiest gent on a cabinet card'. Private Collection.

Man laughing on cabinet card, by Dan Cleave. Private Collection.

My starry-eyed self HAD to add this very happy gent to my collection! And my regular followers know exactly why.

What a picture! Isn’t his laughter just contagious? I’m in love with this. What did the photographer tell his sitter to catch him laughing his head off like this? But whatever Dan Cleave did or say, hats off!

This is a very rare sight on a cabinet card, and such a lovely and precious moment caught at just the right time. The way he wears his straw boater hat too. As you can imagine, this is an absolute favorite of mine. And he’s got a nice set of teeth too. :)

The card has golden scalloped edges. I date this wonderful photograph to be from the 1890s to early 1900s.

Photographer: Dan Cleave. Dexter. Iowa. Back is blank.