This Cabinet Card may be a mourning card; a photograph of a woman in grief over the loss of a loved one. Sadness permeates this cabinet card and the woman’s expression. The photographer is Joseph Harrison Lamson (1840-1901) of Portland, Maine. The photographer’s father was a maker of daguerrotypes and his mother was an artist. He began his career in photography in Bangor, Maine and then worked in Cuba, the West Indies, and South America. He made a fortune and then bought a studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then moved to Maine and operated a photographic studio in Portland. He photographed the poets Longfellow and Whittier. When he died, his two sons took over the studio.
MOURNING IN PORTLAND, MAINE
