Girl and Boy Posed with Basket and Rocking Horse, 1880

Professional photographers began producing cabinet cards in 1867. Consumers quickly preferred them over earlier cartes-de-visite, which were mounted on smaller cardboard stock. Through the early 1900s, Americans commonly exchanged and collected cabinet photographs--often to commemorate friends or family. A young boy and girl posed for this portrait in R. Goebel's Saint Charles, Missouri, studio in 1880.