Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Curious Cabinet Cards

I've been interested in old photographs for awhile now - especially turn of the century or earlier photos of actresses. Not too long ago, I found this cabinet card in an antique shop:

I was instantly struck by her pose and her defiant look under the jaunty derby hat, cigarette poised. This woman has nerve! After some quick research I found out she was Belle Archer, born 1858, died 1900. Belle was a renowned stage actress and from the look of this photo, she had attitude.

I also learned that this type of photo is referred to as a "cabinet card" because of the way it's mounted and meant to be displayed easily without framing. Once I started looking into cabinet cards, I found lots of awesome images -

macabre:
odd:

fun:

cross-dressing vaudeville: which brings me to my next find - an exhibit at Ohio State on Burlesque called Loose Women in Tights, and a piece of that exhibit entitled Cross Dressing and Gender Performance in Burlesque on vaudevillian actresses who dressed as men. This phenomenon was the inspiration for the name of my shop, Maxine in Trousers. It's great to see burlesque in an academic setting as the focus of a University exhibit. This site offers a quick yet in-depth look (pictures included - nothing too risque) at burlesque from beginning to end (it's not about neo-burlesque). Very cool!

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