Lost and Found: Victorian Cabinet Cards

LOST & FOUND: VICTORIAN CABINET CARDS

Recently I came across these old photographs in a house clearance shop in London's Kentish Town. 

It was only after carrying out some research I realised that they had come from different parts of the world, at a time when short distances seemed a lot further away. I began to imagine stories of relatives or loved ones who lived abroad  and sent these mementos home along with long letters to those that they may never have seen again.

Victorian Cabinet Cards were all the rage in the 1860s and 70s. The cabinet card was larger than the Carte de Visite or calling card which had been in use since 1859. The name Cabinet Card comes from where it could be displayed; taking pride of place in the home. By the beginning of the 20th century sales had declined as the public began to prefer the more candid style of the snap shot which could be captured by the new and affordable Kodak Box Brownie and displayed in an album. The last cabinet cards were produced in the 1920s.

This card (above left), a picture of a teenage girl, was produced in the 1890s by a Thomas Horsfell Midwood. The photograph was taken in Midwood's  studio in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man. I liked the embossed border, her side pose and lovely profile.

 

Cabinet Card Studio, North Folgate Street, Sptialfields, London 1905

'Charlie'

This handsome portrait was most probably taken in Queensland, Australia by J.H Hansen Lundager, it is wonderful that many of the backs of these cards (see below) contained the explicit details of their maker as this was a golden opportunity for some free advertising,  which would inevitably lead to more commissions (this also helps give date and provenance to each card). I liked the subject's eyes, his distant romantic gaze and splendid center parting! 

Someone has penciled the name 'Charlie' on the back so I'm guessing that's what he was known as. My grandmother had the same habit, coming from a large catholic family it was a necessity; otherwise the pictures and memories lost their meanings. The black mount and oval shaped frame dates it to between 1884 and 1891. I wonder what the story was behind this one, how Charlie ended up on the other side of the world, where many petty criminals were disposed of and what his connections were here.

This young lady (below) had her portrait taken more locally in Leytonstone, East London, by a John Hart "The Universal Provider of High Class Photographs" in his "Victorian Cabinet Studios". It can be dated to between 1889 and 1891 since the photographer died in 1891, two years after moving his studio there from Finsbury. You can see how studio portraiture used props like furniture and backdrops in an attempt to create a more natural look.

House clearance shops are a great way of finding a bargain, I bought these cards for £1 each and you can find them on eBay for £3 and more. However, I always think there is a certain melancholy hanging in the air, possessions from houses that were cleared of their contents as nobody was left to remember these faces, there are whole family albums of infants in Christening robes and sepia holiday snaps of nameless subjects in their prime of life.

Stamford Hill's Hasidic Jewish Community

"Nobody can become a 10-minute Jew," 

warns Hasidic scholar and Stamford Hill 

resident Gaby Lock. "It's so vastly away

 from your way of life that you would 

have no understanding of it whatsoever." 

Stamford Hill, London 

Six months ago I moved to Stamford Hill in north London and found myself amongst Europe's largest Hasidic Jewish community. After 34 years of living in Dublin, for the first time in my life I was now the minority, I was now different. I have become fascinated by their uniform appearance, proud demeanor and curious habits. As a former archaeologist, it's no surprise that their customs and traditions hold a particular fascination to me.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm obsessed with photography. When something unusual catches my eye I immediately want to picture it. However brave I have become in photographing strangers, it has taken me over six months of studying these dark silhouettes to capture them on film. They are the very souls of discretion, going about their daily routines to pray, ride the bus, go to the shop or go to school. They are an intensely private community and command an unspoken air of respect; when you take out your camera an uncomfortable side ward glance or a quickened foot step instantly tell you they want to be left alone. It's almost like photographing a timid but majestic wild animal.

This challenge has merely made me put down my camera and observe them from a distance whilst becoming more discreet as a photographer (a skill that will always be useful). I am gradually learning about their traditions and moral code which influences every part of their lives; from the modestly sewn up slits in the women's skirts to the tight ringlets the men tuck behind their ears or play with when deep in conversation. Even though I don't necessarily agree with their extreme orthodox behavior, I have developed a respect for their sense of family and community. 

 

Each day, fathers proudly walk their children to the synagogue. Large families saunter in parallel lines holding hands from the oldest child to the youngest; each infant is perfectly manicured with miniature tailored suits or pretty dresses. There are well over 20,000 Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill. It' a rapidly growing population of old and young families that are flourishing in the protective arms of a tight unchanging community, within one of the most culturally diverse and fast moving cities of the world. It's almost as if the further the 21st century progresses the tighter they cling to the security of their traditions.

 Photography copyright of Alva Mac Gowan

Oxford: The Pitt Rivers Museum

    Curiouser and Curiouser

 

'Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twisted

In memory's mystic band,

Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers

Plucked in a far off land'

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol 

Lower Gallery, Pitt Rivers Museum

Augustus Pitt Rivers was an eminent Victorian who through his own curiosity managed to amass a huge collection of ethnographical items from all over the world. However, this was not the only legacy he left. He developed the idea of typology - the classification of artefacts in a chronological sequence, showing their development over time. Pitt Rivers joined the Ethnological Society of London as early as 1861, he was an influential figure in the development of archaeology and anthropology. He gifted his collection of 20,000 objects on condition that a museum be built to house them. 

A blowfish lantern from Japan

One of the interesting features of the museum is the way the objects are displayed. They are grouped according to how they were made or used, rather than by their origin or age. A walk around the labyrinth that is the Pitt Rivers museum takes you on a trip around the world of the past, giving you a greater understanding of the present and how evolution has a natural pace of it's own, which unfortunately is being challenged by modern technology.

This vast archive of human knowledge and expertise celebrates the diversity of the human spirit as expressed by material culture.

A selection of ancient rings from England

  

  Artefacts from the Kogi Indians in Colombia, South America

A selection of ancient snow shoes from Asia, Japan and Holland

Mysterious prehistoric mammal all wrapped up during 
restoration work in the Pitt Rivers Museum of Natural History

Ancient loom weaving techniques

'Eskimo' or Inuit costumes from Eclipse Sound, 
Northern Baffinland, Nunavut, Canada

Cowrie shell currency strings were once worn as body ornaments which, 
because of their desirability and relative standard size, were also 
used as a form of currency for trade and exchange in Asia and Africa

A human shrunken trophy head: Naga Tribe, Nagaland, North East India

Basket Weaving, Madagascar

'The Evolution of the Playing Card'

Prehistoric flint arrowheads silver mounted as amulets, Italy

'FIJIAN necklace of carved and polished pieces of sperm-whale tooth, 
given by King Thakombau to the Rev. James Calvert about 1874'

Ice skates from Iceland and Norway