What Makes a Great Cabinet Card Part 2?

Yesterday I asked the question, with millions to choose from, what makes a great cabinet card. Well, here is an example. The photographer, M.J. Streuser from Bellevue, Iowa had a great eye for composition, the subject matter, a group of guys out having a good time, the sense of movement one gets from Arnie brandishing his club. Wow. I feed the name M.J. Streuser into Google, not expecting much, and found another example of his work on the Cowan Auctions site, of a photographer and his assistant posing with their wares. Probably a self portrait and it was wonderful too. I really recommend that others visit and take a look. The very first post I put up on this blog was a group of prints I made from a set of glass negs, all from the same photographer, and the thought of picking up more Streuser prints, well it's the same. Written on the back, "Arnie, Geo. Zentiner, Frank Kegles, Charles Hartley, Ed Kamp, Phil, Joe Brandt, From one of Arnie's birthdays." Go punch in M.J. Streuser into Google before the Cowan Auctions site takes down the cabinet card I mentioned, and please use the archives section to the right to navigate back to Montana Glass Negatives, pubished on June 9. 2009.

What Makes a Great Cabinet Card?

There are millions of cabinet cards out there, so why buy one over another? A great pose, interesting face, unique clothing or a particular skill on the part of the photographer are all great reasons to buy an image. Sometimes, as was the case with this card, it's the back. I saw all of the medals and assumed that photographer Dabbs was a multi award winner, but when I got home and looked at them with a lens, I was a bit surprised. Three are identical logos for The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, three are basically advertising marks, a couple of things in Latin that could be anything and one, and only one, award medallion. Well, I guess that means that false advertising is nothing new. It reminds me of the old story of how P.T. Barnum got people to move out of his venues. He put up big signs that said "This way to the Egress." Egress is just a fancy way of saying, this way out.

The German American Collection, Cabinet Cards and CDVs

Here's the story on this collection. I bought it from an online dealer from Florida. He had picked up a large group of photos, albums, and ephemera from an estate, sold of a number of images, separately, and then took what was left and put together some lots for sale. I tried to buy a number of these groupings, and this was the only one I was able to get. There are some really nice photos, some dull ones, and some that are just plain bad. Because I think context is important, I'll eventually put all of them on line, but because so much of it is missing from the collection, I'll be putting them up intermittently, rather than all at once. Because I have some photos taken in Germany I've decided to label them all The German American Collection. Not a lot of labeling on these ones. The old man has a studio mark, "L. Rogers, PHOTOGRAPHER, TARRYTOWN, N.Y." Written, "Pops mothers father-Lewis" The young boy, "Seeley, 292 Main Street, Po'keepsie, N.Y." and written, "Katie Mortimer" And no, that's not a mistake, he's identified as Katie.

Charge With Brass

Fiorello LaGuardia, progressive Republican (Now there's an oxymoron!) mayor of New York City, while born in New York spent most of his childhood in Prescott, Arizona where his father was military bandmaster at nearby Fort Whipple. Before radio, television and the Internet, a talented bandmaster was worth his weight in gold at isolated military outposts. Bored soldiers far from home was not a good combination. Click on musicians in the labels section to bring up a photo of a World War 1, AEF military band as well as shots of small town coronet bands. Printed on postcard stock.

Study In Knees

No, not those knees. "STUDY IN KNEES AT CYPRESS GARDENS Cypress knees come up from the roots of the trees in fantastic and gnarled shapes but never grow to be trees, only acting as breathers, the same as leaves do on other trees." Addressed to "Ralph Lerch, Granite City, Illinois. U.S.A." And the written message, "Here's a little still study in art that you might like. Beautiful scenery & stuff on the beach. Boy they sure give you some service in Miami. A fellow comes out every few minutes and gives you the run down on the horse races and takes your bets while you're lying in the sand. See you all latter. Kindest regards to Fran, Frankie and yourself. Al Lehman" The funny thing is that this postcard has Cuban stamps and no post mark, so it looks like Al took the boat to Havana and did some more drinking, gambling, and maybe hit a brothel or two, then never mailed the card.

-

I've always thought of Las Vegas as the place that nice middle class Americans go to sin in safety. Miami and Havana, both mob cities in the forties and fifties, could have been a little more dicey for Al Lehman. He might have been one of the many low level gangsters who made some cash during prohibition who then went semi-legit with a night club, illegal gambling in the back room, and a couple of girls who sat at the bar and cut in the house for a percentage of their earnings. Miami and Havana would have represented the big time to him. Then again, he might have been a nice respectable guy who wanted a bit of fun that would impress Ralph Lerch. What a great name.

Strange Girls Get Strange Borders

What's up with Blogger? I'm redoing this post because the service was down for a couple of days and when it came back up, my last effort had been deleted. Too, I've only got 16 of 'em, but the followers section has vanished into the ether. Anyway, as I wrote a couple of days ago, these three girls probably appeared quite ordinary when this photo was taken, but to my eye, they remind me of three young stars of a slasher movie. The girl on the left is the dupe, the one on the right is the psycho killer and the center girl is the manipulator who gets the other two to do her evil bidding. And those weird borders make it even more spooky. When I worked in the photo lab, I had cut out a number of masks from black construction paper to give prints uneven borders, something that a couple of our clients liked. Printed on postcard stock. Early twentieth century, I'd bet.

Dead Animals On My Neck

Those who know that I'm an avid hiker, backpacker, and all around lover of the great outdoors find it difficult to believe that I have nothing against hunting or the wearing of fur. When I was a child some of the older ladies in my home town still wore the old style fox wraps with the fox biting it own tail, somewhat like the one in this photo. Were they designed to to unbite? Stamped on the back, "From WHITING'S STUDIO JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS." Thinking of Frank Zappa?