This beautiful late nineteenth-century cabinet card presents a wonderfully staged winter scene by Frank C. Weston of Bangor, Maine. The New York Public Library’s Photographers’ Identities Catalog lists Frank C. Weston as born in 1852 and records his studio locations in Bangor, including 2 Smith Block and, by 1905, 23 Hammond Street. Weston was a native of Maine who established himself as a photographer in the late 1870’s. His prices were “dictated by a spirit of moderation”, and he was the preferred photographer among the African American community of Bangor. This image shows two young girls posed in a snowy studio landscape, dressed in matching dark winter outfits with capes, buttoned dresses, dark stockings, boots, scarves, and fur-trimmed or heavy winter hats. They stand solemnly and formally, as children so often did in Victorian-era studio portraits, but the scene itself is wonderfully playful. Beside them is a small sled or sleigh, and on it is a small shaggy dog, likely posed as part of the winter tableau. The girls appear to be holding reins or cords attached to the sled, creating the charming illusion that the girls are pulling the sleigh through the snow. The painted studio backdrop includes bare winter trees, a snow-covered fence, and a dramatic wintry sky, giving the portrait a storybook quality. This is more than a simple child portrait; it is a carefully composed Victorian winter play scene. The combination of children, sled, dog, snow, and painted outdoor scenery gives the image strong appeal. It has the feel of a staged seasonal fantasy, perhaps intended to evoke Bangor’s cold Maine winters while also presenting the children in a refined and sentimental manner. Bangor itself was an important and prosperous Maine city during this period. In the nineteenth century it was deeply connected to the lumber trade, with Maine Memory Network noting that Bangor exported more lumber than any other port in the world in 1842, and that the Penobscot region saw another boom in the 1880s with the rise of the paper industry. That prosperity helps explain why a photographer such as Weston would have had a clientele for elaborate studio portraits such as this one. The reverse of the cabinet card is especially interesting. Rather than a plain blank back, it has a large, subtle, blind-embossed studio backstamp or advertising impression for Weston. It is somewhat faint but it gives the card an added layer of interest. This kind of subdued, impressed backmark is less visually bold than the ornate printed backs often seen on cabinet cards, but it is quite appealing and somewhat unusual. It also helps confirm the photographer and Bangor origin. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
this is so sweet