Vintage cabinet card portraits and CDVs

Here are selections from my personal collection of antique cabinet cards and cartes de visite (CDVs), many of which were assembled for my earlier Early photography studios in Dallas - a walking tour project and post. This collection of mostly local examples can be seen as a companion piece to that earlier post. All subjects pictured are unidentified unless otherwise noted.

	The "Apex" at 948 Elm Street, purchased from an online seller. This card dates to between 1888 and 1891, when the 948 building number was changed to 378. It is thus an early example of this studio's output.
	The "Apex" at 378 Elm Street, old number 948, picked up at a Dallas antique store. This dates to (probably) 1891, as that was the year that the city of Dallas carried out its first of two street renumbering efforts. This seems to be the second of three different logos employed by the studio, this time being embossed as opposed to simply printed on the bottom of the card. This is a prime example of why I so often dislike cabinet cards featuring women and girls dressed in frilly, flowing white. 130+ years' worth of fading renders these outfits barely visible, resulting in photos of near-disembodied heads.
	The "Apex" at 378 Elm Street, old number 948, purchased from an online seller. Here is another example of the second logo, this time printed as opposed to embossed. The proprietors of Apex, William H. Parish and Joseph T. O'Bannon, were given to bragging about their elaborate background setups for photographing children, but what can still be seen in this quite faded image appears somewhat minimal. In fairness, much or most of this is likely due to the many decades' worth of image decomposition that have rendered the little girl's dress a sea of white.
	Another "Apex" example at 378 Elm Street, picked up at a Dallas antique store. This shows the final, and, based on what I have found in my research, most common studio logo.
	R.L. Chalmers at 913 Elm Street, picked up at a Dallas antique store. The space at 913 Elm was occupied by Chalmers in association with Jesse B. Williams in 1888, and (per the following year's city directory) Chalmers remained there at least as late as 1889. I left the 913 location off my cabinet card studios walking tour because I wasn't able to nail down the site's post-1891 address.
	Clifton Church at 804 Elm Street, picked up at a Fort Worth antique store. Church was a very prolific photographer in Dallas from 1891 through the very early 20th century. This card was originally a candidate for my "walking tour" post, especially as it includes the full address of the studio. The woman pictured on this card is (per the writing on the reverse side) Mary Carlton, and the date written on the back is March 2, 1890.
	Another Church example, no address given but likely 804 Elm Street. This was purchased from an online seller and is a quite nice example of nineteenth century cabinet card photography.
	The Cottage Studio in Terrell, no address given on card. This was purchased via an online auction. The Cottage Studio appears to have been owned by the Weatherington Bros, who operated studios in Dallas, Belton, and Temple under the Weatherington Bros. name, as well as operating another Cottage Studio in Temple.
	Deane studios, most likely the work of Granville M. Deane, at 300 Elm Street. This was purchased via an online auction. The studio logo featured on this card is the most common of a number of different designs used by the various Deane brothers, all of whom were active as commercial photographers.
	Alfred Freeman at 505 Main Street, purchased from an online seller. Alfred Freeman was one of the earliest notable commercial photographers in Dallas, producing CDVs while also dealing in "fine organs." CDVs from Dallas (such as this one) are rare, as the city was very young at the time. The carte de visite format was soon supplanted by the more popular cabinet card.
	Another Alfred Freeman example, this time a cabinet card produced at 115 Travis Street in Sherman. This was purchased from an online seller. Alfred Freeman relocated from Dallas around the end of the 1880s, several years after being acquitted of murder charges. Freeman's story is an interesting one which I plan to write more about at some point.
	Louisville Art Gallery at 1132 Elm Street, picked up at a Dallas antique store, and likely produced before 1889. The gallery is named in 1888 advertisements in the Dallas Morning News, but the following year's city directory lists photographer W. Wirt Williams as the proprietor of the studio space. I haven't been able to confirm the location of the site today. Handwriting on the back identifies the baby as Lucille, with the last name illegible (Donnaud?)
	Louisville Art Gallery at 1205 Elm Street, purchased from an online seller. The imprint on the rear credits J.D. McDaniel as photographer and locates the address of 1205 Elm Street as being "[t]wo blocks West of Union Depot." I haven't been able to dig up any real information on McDaniel other than his association with this studio. I'm assuming that this card dates to sometime between 1889 and 1891 based on the pre-1891 address, but I don't know this for sure.
	Another Louisville Art Gallery example from 1205 Elm Street, also purchased from an online seller. Little to no information is available concerning this studio. I'm assuming that the move up the street to 1205 Elm came due to W. Wirt Williams acquiring the space at 1132.
	William McClellan at 705 Main Street, purchased via an online auction. The studio logo and address are barely legible at the bottom. After some consideration I decided to drop potential Main Street studios from my cabinet card walking tour, which had an added benefit of simplifying things by keeping everything on Elm Street. At some point in the future, I will pen a follow up post covering the Main Street locations.
	Another McClellan at 705 Main Street, purchased via an online auction at the same time as the previous example. The studio name and address appear on the back in this instance, along with handwritten notes appearing to identify the girl as a four-year-old May Burford. William McClellan succeeded J.R. Davis, a notable photographer responsible for many early stereoviews of Dallas, at the 705 address.
	A.C.D. Miller in Henrietta, Texas, no address given on card. This was an online purchase. A.C. Dayton Miller operated two studios in Dallas from 1884-1885, and I'm still on the lookout for a local example of his output.
	J.H. Webster in Dallas, no address given on card, picked up at a Dallas antique store. This dates to no later than 1889, the year Webster sold his studio to Clifton Church to focus on his real estate business.
	Another J.H. Webster in Dallas, no address given on card. This was picked up via an online auction and likewise dates to no later than 1889.
	Like the previous two examples, this Webster card has no address on either the front or the back. This was the first of two Webster cards I've acquired with the logo in this alternate style, and it was purchased up via an online auction.
	In common with all the previous examples, this Webster card has no studio address printed on either side. This was picked up via an online auction.
	W. Wirt Williams, Nos. 904 and 1132 Elm Street. I purchased this CDV via an online auction. The woman pictured is Lora Viola Davis Bell, according to the writing on the back.
	W. Wirt Williams in Dallas, 1132 Elm Street, between Harwood and Pearl. This was purchased from an online seller and should date to between 1889-1890 based on city directory listings.
	W. Wirt Williams in Dallas, 1132 Elm Street, between Harwood and Pearl. This was purchased together with the previous example.
	W. Wirt Williams in Dallas, 334 Elm Street, corner of Sycamore (present-day Akard Street). This was purchased from an online seller and dates to 1891 or later. My guess is that this predates the card used to illustrate my walking tour and is in better condition, but was unfortunately acquired after the post was published.
	Another Williams in Dallas, 334 Elm Street, this time going by last name only. This was purchased from an online seller.
	Charles Wisdom at 318 Elm Street. This appears to me to be a comparatively early example of his output, dating to around the same period as the one used for my walking tour post. This was picked up inside a Dallas antique store.
	Wisdom in Dallas, no address given on card but likely 300 or 318 Elm Street. This probably dates to some time after the example used for my walking tour post, and was picked up inside a Dallas antique store.
	Another Wisdom in Dallas with the same logo and likely dating to the same time period. This was another antique store purchase.
	Works in Fort Worth, 3rd and Main, purchased from an online seller. Information on Fort Worth-based cabinet card photographers is a bit hard to come by, and the cards themselves seemingly much less common than their Dallas counterparts.