This cabinet card photograph features a fashionable young woman. Her plain dress is spiced up with a fancy collar and a sash. She is accessorized with two bracelets and what appears to be a chain and pocket watch. She was photographed by the Morris studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. United States census data reveals some biographical information about the photographer of this cabinet card. J. G. Morris was located in the 1880 census. He was about 29 years old and he and his father (David Morris) were both working as photographer agents. In 1900, Morris and his 18 year old son, Harry, were boarders, and the older Morris was working as a photographer while the younger Morris was employed s a photographer apprentice. The 1910 U.S. Census finds Morris still working as a photographer and living with his wife, Mary P. Morris. To view other photographs by Morris, click on the category “Photographer: Morris”. This cabinet card photograph is in very good condition. (see scans). (SOLD)
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
There’s always a provocative note of some kind in most of these. The photographer bills himself as an artist (one of the nicest card backs I’ve seen) and I have to wonder what he was thinking when he posed her next to what at first glance appears to be a rug hanging by her little finger. Close inspection shows the support under the rug. Intentional on his part? Possibly, or he would have had her rest her palm on the rug.
This photographer (Mr Morris) calls himself an artist as many of them do. A number of this era’s photographers started out as artists. I guess photography was a way to utilize their artistic talent and get paid for it. As to what is holding up the rug; my guess is that there is a chair under the rug from which it hangs. Why is the rug there? Rugs and blankets are commonly used in cabinet card photographs. They are good at filling blank space in a “pleasing to look at” manner. These props are also great to hide under. I have seen many examples of cabinet card portraits of babies or very young children, where mom is hiding under a blanket while she holds her child on a chair. The kids are being held for safety reasons as well as to facilitate the pose requested by the photographer.If you look carefully, many times you can see mom’s hands sticking out from the rug or blanket. There are also many cabinet card examples of young children being held in place on a chair by a brace. Being photographed during the cabinet card era was not an easy task for subjects. Thank goodness for the cameras on our cell phones. Such an improvement. Actually, it could be easy to argue that photography studios had their own advantages.
Yes, it must be a chair. Photography has been one of my interests since my mother’s mother took photos of me with her Kodak Brownie. Glad to have a trunkful of those and others of the world we lived in then.
Book 4 continues with Serafina, who not only is a painter of miracles, but uses her father’s camera to record Ramon. At one point, she almost reveals her biggest secret when she says, “If only I’d had a camera–” but realizes who she’s talking to and catches herself. She was a child then, with no thought of tomorrow, or her father’s camera.