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Some women playing instruments. It's all I can muster at the moment. The last 6 weeks, I've been running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. I'm hoping to regain my head, along with my sanity, very soon, and get FringePop back into a regular schedule. In the meantime, I apologize for all the static.
Photographs of musicians is a collecting sub-genre in antique photography collecting. This particular group is a strange lot. Odd, awkward expressions. Stiff stature. Of course, this isn't uncommon for the time. However, I've seen enough antique photos to know that these fellows look stiffer and odder than the norm.
Confused about context of this. Did he act in a play? Perhaps Little Miss Muffet? The spiderweb backdrop is intriguing.
I find antique photographs of lower class people quite interesting. They have a Dickensian character that is not found in formal cabinet cards taken in a studio. But, we shouldn't romanticize this. No doubt, this was a hard life. "People's History of the United States" by Zinn comes to mind.
We have also sought out antique photos of women with long hair, preferably really long hair. This one is a nice example, although there are many good ones out there.
Any thoughts as to the context of this photo? I thought it might be an advertisement for a dress that was showcasing the backside.
Photos of minorities are relatively uncommon in photo collecting. You do find them from time to time, but they aren't "run of the mill" like photos of white folk. I can go to an antique store and look through 500 cabinet cards, and I probably won't find a single photo of a minority. So, it's interesting to find these photos when you do find them. This cabinet card from Baltimore shows an Asian man, probably Chinese.
This is an unusual Victorian era cabinet card photo featuring two sideshow performers at different extremes. We have the large man, who would have then been known as the circus fat man. We have the skinny man, who would have been known as the same. What gives this photo even more character, though, is the addition of boxing gloves. I'm not sure if any sideshows featured a boxing match between these two performers or if this was just a novelty shot. Whatever the case, it's an interesting piece of sideshow history.
