Thomas Rowe, Expansionist Circus Performer, circa 1895

01

Artifact Overview

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 of family, friends and celebrities. This example, made in Detroit, Michigan, around 1895, depicts Thomas Rowe, a sideshow performer in the Walter L. Main Circus.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Cabinet photograph

Subject Date

circa 1895

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2004.67.3

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Given by Fred R. Frisbie in Memory of his Grandfather, Ceil V. Frisbie.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)
Cardboard

Technique

Gelatin silver process
Mounting

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 6.5 in
Width: 4.25 in

Inscriptions

obverse, printed: Howie, 231 Jefferson Ave., Detroit. verso, handwritten: Thos Rowe (?) Expansionist