Cabinet Cards and CDVs

"Compliments of A. D. Harding, artistic photographer, 42 Main St., Susquehanna, Penn'a. Satisfaction guaranteed." For a delightful collection of similar cards with photos, see Photo_History's set of Calling Cards, Business Cards, and ID Cards over on Flickr.

See also the back of this CDV , which identifies it as coming from the studio of "J. G. Vallade, portrait painter and photographer, one door above post office, Altoona, Pa."

See also the front of this CDV . "J. G. Vallade, portrait painter and photographer, one door above post office, Altoona, Pa. Negatives will be preserved. Photograph albums, gilt and rosewood frames, and landscape oil paintings for sale."

A weddings photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten caption (barely visible at the bottom of the photo above): "Mr. & Mrs. T. Thumb." Handwritten note on the back of the photo (see below): "Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb." Printed on the back of the photo: "Published by the New York Photographic Co., No. 453 Broadway, New York." Other versions of this photo are captioned "Mr. & Mrs. 'General Tom Thumb' in Their Wedding Costumes" (see, for instance, Photo_History's copy, Tom Thumb's Wedding by Brady , on Flickr). As Wikipedia explains, " General Tom Thumb was the stage name of Charles Sherwood Stratton" (1838-1883), a little person who became famous as a performer for circus promoter P. T. Barnum. His marriage to Lavinia Warren (1841-1919), a little person who was a former school teacher, took place on February 10, 1863, and received extensive publicity. Stratton died in 1883, and Lavinia married another little person, Count Primo Magri (1849-1920), in 1885 (see the photo of Count and Countess Magri below). Despite her marriage to Magri, Lavinia continued to make appearances as Mrs. General Tom Thumb (see below for a 1912 theater advertisement and an undated green ticket ). Lavinia died in 1919 and was buried next to her first husband. Magri passed away the following year. After all the publicity generated by Lavinia and Stratton's marriage in 1863, people began referring to the playful mock marriages in which children assume the roles of bride and groom as "Tom Thumb weddings." These events are still held today by churches and other groups for fundraising and entertainment purposes (see below for a photo of a children's mock wedding held in the 1920s ).

Handwritten note on this CDV photo back : "Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb." Backmark: "Published by the New York Photographic Co., No. 453 Broadway, New York." For the photo on the front of this CDV, see Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb in Their Wedding Attire :

The Italian Count Primo Magri married Lavinia Warren , who was the widow of General Tom Thumb , in 1885. . For the back of this photo, see Count and Countess Magri (Back) (below, left). For more information about Lavinia Warren and her first husband, see Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb in Their Wedding Attire (below, right).

Handwritten note on this CDV photo back: "Count Primo Magri from Bologna, Italy. Countess." For the photo on the front of this CDV, see Count and Countess Magri :

Photographer: "C. C. Keim, Middletown, Pa."

"Boston Art Gallery, 109 Franklin St., Johnstown, Pa."

A cabinet card photo featuring a decorative mask that forms a tennis-themed border, with two crossed tennis rackets and three tennis balls at the bottom, netting along the bottom and sides, and leaves and vines at the top. This appears to be the same mask (although flipped horizontally) used in Photo_History's Woman with Tennis Racket Decorative Mask - Cabinet Card .

Photographer: E. F. Eton, 329 Market St., Harrisburg, Pa.

Photographer name and studio locations embossed at the bottom of this cabinet card: "Fordtran, Kensington, Blue Island, and Riverdale" (Fordtran was located in the Chicago, Illinois, area). See also a detail showing the photograph that the girl is holding .

Looks like the girl is holding a photo of a girl or boy standing on a sofa or some other type of furniture. See also the full cabinet photo .

I thought at first that the doll was sitting on some sort of wheelbarrow, but as lisabee73 points out (see comments below) it's more likely that this is actually a dog cart or baby carriage. Printed on the back of this CDV: "A. Jandorf & Co., Berlin, C. Spittelmarkt 16/17, S.W. Bellealliancestr. 1/2, N.O. Grosse Frankfurterstr. 113. Platten werden zur Nachbestellung aufbewahrt."

A baby perched on a quilt-covered rocking chair.

"John D. Lemer, 1218 North 3rd St., Harrisburg, Pa." For the Vintage Photos Theme Park, a hand in the photo with the person cut off .* For more of the same, track down a copy of Linda Fregni Nagler and Gioni Massimiliano's book, The Hidden Mother (London: MACK, 2013), which is a compilation of over 1,000 vintage photos of mothers attempting to remain hidden as they comfort children who are being photographed. *I try to sort through my collection in order to post a brand new photo for each week's theme, but I came up short this week and had to use one that I had previously posted elsewhere on Ipernity.