A lady and her banjo are the subject of this cabinet card portrait. She is posed as if she is performing. She sits with the banjo on her knees and curtains draped behind her. Although the photograph is marred by age, it is still a spectacular image because it captures the role music played in home entertainment at the turn of the nineteenth century. The performer and the photographer are unidentified.
This photograph features two musicians posing for their portrait at the Jarrard Studio in Fort Wayne, Indiana. According to an inscription on the reverse of the photograph, the violinist is named “Louie Dudenhofer” and he is the “Brother to Jeanette”. The second musician is unidentified and he is holding his accordion. The photographer, Harry R. Jarrard was born in Indiana in 1852. He is known to have been a photographer from at least 1889 through 1910. He is thought to have arrived in Fort Wayne in 1886 and in 1888 married Emma Short. His photography business in Fort Wayne occupied several locations during its existence.
Five women pose for their photographic portrait at the O’Donnell studio in Morris Run, Pennsylvania. The women are all dressed in a uniform that appears to be consistent with the garb of the Salvation Army. However, none of the women seem to be wearing the customary badge that members of the organization usually wear. Comments in regard to whether their band is part to the Salvation Army, would be welcomed. Three of the ladies are holding guitars. The other two may be singers but one would expect that they would be holding tambourines as is the style in many music themed salvation army cabinet cards. The photographer is likely Stewart J. O’Donnell who is listed in the 1899 Hamilton Township business directory. O’Donnell’s studio was located in Morris Run, which is part of Hamilton Township and Tioga County. The area was known for its coal mining.
The top Cabinet Card is an image of two Salvation Army workers photographed by Suddard of Fall River, Massachusetts. The young couple are both in uniform; he has a tambourine and she is holding a trumpet. It is interesting to note that he is wearing a late 1800′s version of an embossed tee shirt. His shirt’s lettering states “NO CROSS NO CROWN”. A present day, non religious meaning of this saying would be “no pain, no gain”. The motto on the shirt was a widely used expression and an early user of the phrase was William Penn, the founder of the Quaker colong of Pennsylvania. The second photograph, also by Suddard, shows the same couple in a different studio setting. Once again, the couple is attired in a salvation army uniform. The gentleman is wearing a different style uniform than he wore in the top photograph. In the bottom photograph, the woman has taken possession of the tambourine and the man is holding papers. These two cabinet cards were purchased more than two years apart and I am fairly certain that they were purchased from different sellers. Amazingly, these images have ended up together again. A third cabinet card image by Suddard can be found elsewhere in the Cabinet Gallery. It can be accessed by clicking the category “Photographers: Suddard”.
The gentleman featured in this cabinet card is clearly a member of a band. He is wearing a band uniform and holding his trombone. Note his cap and bow tie. The studio which produced this image was Babb’s Ground Floor Gallery in Shelbyville, Illinois. James A. Babb (1855-?) and Jacob P. Babb (1857-1908) were the proprietors of Babb’s photographic studio. James was a native of Missouri and worked on a farm until 1879 when he came to Sullivan, Illinois and worked in a photographic gallery. He then returned to Missouri (Jefferson City) and worked for a photographer named S. Winans. He then moved to Shelbyville where he worked several years in the grocery business until he and his brother Jacob, established a Photography business. James Babb married Miss Mollie E. Oliver of Shelbyville. Jacob Babb was also a Missouri native and started his work life as a farmer. At age twenty-four he began working in the lumber industry and in 1883 he began a career in photography with the same S. Winans previously mentioned. His next job change occurred when he partnered with his brother in the Shelbyville gallery. In 1887 Jacob married Miss Anna Sampson of Shelbyville. The major source of information concerning the Babb brothers was the “Illinois Genealogy Trails” section on Shelby County.
This cabinet card features a portrait of the Shepard Family Concert Company. In this photograph, mother is playing the piano (or organ) and the five children and their father are playing violins. The photographer of this cabinet card is unknown, as is the location of the studio. A photograph of the Shepard family and their instruments appears in The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont (located in Middlebury, Vermont). In addition, the museum possesses a “cigar ribbon quilt” serving as a piano cover. The quilt is made from silken advertising ribbons which cigar companies used to tie cigars together for packaging purposes. This particular quilt was made by Mary Emily Shepard (“Minnie”), the matriarch of the Shepard Family. The Shepard Family was Massachusetts based, and mostly toured upper New England. The musical group venues included the Town Hall Theatre, in Middlebury, Vermont. Family Musical Troupes were popular in the 1880′s and 1890′s. Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Shepard and their children, Kittie, Laura, Lessie, Georgie, and Burtin were regionally well known and appreciated in the late nineteenth century. Each family member were multi instrumentalists. The family could perform as a choral group, a brass band, or a violin ensemble with the mother playing the pump reed organ. In addition, sometimes, the children would perform as a banjo quintet.
Two sisters, in identical dresses, pose for a cabinet card portrait, as they play separate xylophones. The girls are very conscious of the camera as they pretend to play their duet. The xylophones are atop interesting pieces of furniture, or perhaps, trunks. Viewers of this image must consider the possibility that the sisters in this photograph are actually one, and the same, person. It was not unusual during this era for a photographer to use trick photography to place one person in two positions in the same photograph. The photographer of the cabinet card was E. J. (possibly E. T.) Vanderbilt, whose studio was located in Liverpool, England.
This cabinet card captures five young adults who may be part of a musical group. One of the two woman in the photograph is holding a guitar; and that may be the only evidence that this group was in the business of making music. The men are all wearing derby hats. The woman with the guitar has a flower covered hat on her lap, and the second woman has a basket filled with flowers on her knees. There is also something odd included in the content of this photograph. There appears to be a sheet, or sheets, of paper on the ground between the two woman. Is that white square paper, sheet music, or is it a photographic flaw in the image? The photographer of this cabinet card is J. H. R. Kemp. His studio was located in Luzerne, Pennsylvania and his tenure there included the 1890′s.
This cabinet card features a uniformed bugle boy, posed holding his instrument, and wearing a satchel bag strapped over his shoulder. The boy’s cap has a badge indicating that he was in company B of the “ALC”. “ALC” likely stands for Albert Lea C……”. Perhaps a visitor to the Cabinet Card Gallery can leave a comment identifying the “C” word. The bugle boy, judging by his uniform, was a member of a band. Albert Lea is the name of the Minnesota town where the photographic studio that produced this cabinet card was located. Albert Lea is ninety miles south of Minneapolis, Minnesota; and was named after a topographer with the US Dragoons who surveyed the area in 1835. The photographer of this cabinet card was Joseph A. Fuller (1851-?). Fuller was born in Walworth County, Wisconsin. He worked as a photographer in Decorah, Iowa and Chatfield, Minnesota; before moving to Albert Lea in 1873. At the time of this photograph, Fuller’s studio was on the corner of Williams and Broadway Streets, “over Brown & Cos Bank”. His later studios in Albert Lea included 202 South Broadway (1914-1922) and 204 South Broadway (1924). He worked in Minnesota from the 1870′s through part of the 1920′s.
The Boys in the Band gather for this cabinet card photograph by photographer John Strunk, in Reading, Pennsylvania. The uniformed brass band consists of four member. A consultation from the Cabinet Card Gallery’s unpaid research department would be helpful, but for the time being, I will identify the bandsmen’s instruments as being a clarinet, trumpet, french horn and a flute. To view other photographs by Strunk, click on the category of “Photographer: Strunk”.
