This cabinet card features an adorable little girl standing on a wicker chair as she poses for her portrait. She is barefoot and has a radiant smile. The photographer is Carl Thiel, of Duluth, Minnesota. Thiel was located on Ingalls Block, in Duluth, between 1887 and 1891. His studio moved to 105 West Superior, in Duluth, between 1891 and 1901. It is also known that he had a studio in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1914. Research reveals that he was a close friend of Feodor von Luerzor (1851-1913), an Austrian born landscape painter who immigrated to the United States in 1886. Thiel, a former actor, occupied a studio in the same building that Von Luezor had his painting studio. Thiel’s cabinet card work is favorably cited in Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin (1888).
CUTE LITTLE GIRL STANDING ON A WICKER CHAIR IN DULUTH, MINNESOTA
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN HOLDING PAPERS IN HIBBING OR EVELETH, MINNESOTA
The subject of this photograph is a very pretty woman, stylishly dressed and wearing a flowered hat at the photographic studio of A. M. Turnquist, located in either Hibbing or Eveleth, Minnesota. The woman appears quite natural and relaxed as she sits at a table with a potted plant in the background. What are those papers that she is holding? Is it possibly a script for a play, a magazine, or divorce documents? The answer is lost to time. A. M. Turnquist is more specifically, Axel M. Turnquist who was born in Sweden, and trained in photography in Duluth, Minnesota. He operated photographic studios in many Minnesota towns including Tower, Virginia, Eveleth, Hibbing, and Aurora. He worked as a photographer form the 1880′s through 1923. To view other photographs by Turnquist, click on category “Photographer: Turnquist”.
