The half-box of cards was on the bottom shelf, and I could see a stack of sepia photos of African Americans in it. I asked the auctioneer for the box – it was inside one of the glass cases away from the bidders – and I was delighted to see that they were cabinet cards of African Americans.
You don’t often find cabinet cards like these at auction, and certainly not this many. Cabinet cards are photographs mounted on thin cardboard. They were very popular starting around the 1870s and into the early 1900s, peaking in the 1880s. Folks would primarily dress up in their best clothes, make their way to a photographer’s studio and pose for photos, either individually or as a family. Then they handed out the cards – measuring 4 ¼” by 6 ½” – to family and friends.
After the Kodak Brownie Box camera was manufactured in 1900, interest in cabinet cards waned.
The cutest of the cards at auction showed a pair of twin girls who looked both afraid and bewildered. All of the pictures were taken at several photo studios in West Chester, PA, and appeared to be images of different families. I suspect that the cards had originally been purchased by a dealer at some other auction or estate sale.
Cabinet cards in general show up at auctions from time to time, and I’ve seen some as memorial cards for loved ones and others with fancy designs advertising the studio. Some of the cards at this auction had fancy illustrations on the back, too, and like all cabinet cards, the photo studio’s name and address were on the front.
The cabinet cards likely date back to the latter part of the 19th century, during the period of Reconstruction, which gave hope to African Americans who had endured the inhumanity of slavery.
I loved the cards because they showed a different side of African Americans. Most of what I see from that era is stereotypically awful so I’m always eager to see black folks as they see themselves. It was their way of snubbing their collective noses at other people’s images of them.
They could dress up and look good, too. They could stand poised and proud in front of the camera, too. They had the means to pay for pictures, too. They could be distinguished, too. That’s what they seemed to be saying in the cabinet cards as they chronicled an instance in their lives.
Much of that hope was severed when the federal government left African Americans in the South to the wolves, pulling out troops in a deal in 1877 with Republican presidential candidate Rutherford Hayes and Southern Democrats. It was followed by a long history of lynchings and Jim-Crow tactics aimed at erasing any Reconstruction gains and returning African Americans to slave-status.
I was just as curious about the photo studios as I was about the sitters. Who were these photographers and how did these folks happen to choose them? Most of the photographers seemed to be well-known in West Chester and beyond. T.W. Taylor was said to have closed his studio during the Civil War to join the Union army – fighting at the famous Antietam – and reopening it in 1863. His was said to be one of the most prominent studios in the city and it remained in business until the 1890s.
William F. Haverstick’s studio was around from the 1890s to the 1910s. Charles A. Saylor of Reading, PA, was said to have photographed Civil War soldiers. A newspaper ad from 1865 noted that he would be showing and selling photos of the city at his studio at 5th and Penn. He had previously exhibited the prize-winning photos at a fair (may have been a Chester County fair). W.C. Bell seemed to have had studios in Pennsylvania and Maryland. W. Belt not only photographed sitters at his studio but he also took his studio in a specially made car to people’s homes.
Charles Sullivan and his wife Ida, both photographers, had a studio in Philadelphia. W.F. Gruff was also around in West Chester during the 1880s and was probably active until 1898. One site noted that portraits were likely the major source of Gruff’s income. I suspect that was the case for the other photographers, too.
I was interested in buying the cabinet cards at auction, so I left an absentee bid but was outbidded. It’s hard sometimes to buy black ephemera (papers, documents). Most times, dealers outbid me on both ephemera and artwork that they can later sell because “black sells.” As for me, I only buy those items to keep.
The stack also contained several photos on whose backs were inscribed “Barrett’s Penny Photos.” I assumed these were sold for a penny to the sitter. I could find nothing about Barrett’s via Google, but learned about another penny photographer named Hugh Mangum who photographed both whites and blacks with his Penny Picture Camera in the South. The camera – produced at the turn of the 20th century – allowed the photographer to produce multiple images on one negative.
Here are some of the cabinet cards – and penny pictures – from the stash at auction.
I was delighted to find this article as I was seeking information on photographers W. F. Haverstick and the Belt Studio from West Chester, PA, who had taken photos of several ancestors. This has helped narrow down dates for these photos. Thank you!