Not all photographers of the cabinet card era worked out of brick and mortar photography studios that were situated in towns and cities. Some entrepreneurial photographers thought they had a better idea. These innovative photographers decided to take their studios to the public rather than wait for the public to come to them. Some photographers situated themselves on trains or steamboats while others packed up their studios and took them on the road (via wagon) from town to town. This cabinet card portrait was taken on a studio car attached to a Boston Railroad train. The photograph features a young woman in a dark dress posing next to an ersatz rock. Note the interesting image found below. The photograph comes from the website “Luminous Lint”. The image was taken around 1905 and it shows a group of people in front of a railroad photographic gallery. This train car studio was photographed while in Temple, Oklahoma.
I have another cabinet card with the same script, Boston Railroad Photo Car, but was unable to connect it to Boston. It turns out it’s a long ways from Massachusetts. I recently bought a second cabinet photo that includes Sacramento, California – Pacific Coast as the location.
I’ve acquired a “Boston & Albany RR Photo Car” cabinet card.
Would love to find an image of the photo car itself, similar to the Western RR photo on this website.