This cabinet card features an African American man posing for his portrait at the Prentzel & McCollin studio in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is likely dressed in his Sunday’s best for this photograph. Cabinet card portraits of African Americans are not commonplace. To view a collection of such images, click on cabinet card gallery’s category “African Americans”. One source identifies the photographers as Frank Prentzel and Carl J. McCollin. No confirmation could be located. In fact, research found several sources mentioning a cabinet card era photographer in Philadelphia named Thomas McCollin.
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I noticed that the man’s shirt collar looks like the collar of a chef’s white coat. That makes me wonder, was he a chef? If he was wearing regular Sunday best clothes, his collar would close differently in front and any gap would be covered by a tie or neck cloth.