Portrait of a Young Woman, circa 1885

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. This woman, in what appears to be mourning clothing, posed in Gustave Aufrecht's Allegheny, Pennsylvania studio around 1885.