This cabinet card portrait features pretty actress Helen Standish. Famed celebrity photographer B J Falk produced this image and Miss Standish’s choice to wear a dress showing some cleavage, makes this photograph somewhat risque for it’s era. In addition, her expression can be interpreted as being enticing. Research revealed very little about Helen Standish or her career. She appears in number of cigarette card series including one produced by Dukes Cigarettes (“Leading Actors and Actresses”) which can be seen below. Her name appears in the New York Times (1887) review of the play “The Pyramid” which appeared at the Star Theater. The reviewer states that Miss Standish and another actress in the play “were not equal to the demands of their roles”. Ouch! The reverse of the cabinet card has a stamp from “Culver Service” which was a New York City company that charged the media for the use of photographs coming from their vast image archives. The reverse of the photograph also has the stamp of photographer J. M. Russell, 126 Tremont Street, in Boston, Massachusetts. Russell was a well known music publisher in Boston and it is possible that he also was involved in the sale of celebrity cabinet cards. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
Goodness Gracious! Miss Standish is certainly shown as ‘fair of face’. I have another cabinet card of her, also by Falk. It shows her standing full length, her full-fashion dress touches the floor and the neckline is as high as possible under that name. Her long gloves disappear into the folds of cloth at her shoulders. Under her full hat, only her face is uncovered … no hint of the allure the posted close-up reveals. Still, in either case, beautiful photography. Of Miss Standish, herself,I knew nothing.