A fashionable and attractive woman poses for her portrait at the studio of Schuster, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The reverse of the card has an inscription revealing that the young woman’s name is Belle Noville Gibbons. The photographer’s studio was located at 489 & 491 6th Street West in Cincinnati. The image is beautifully done and the photographer’s use of lighting adds to the beauty of the subject and the photograph. . The photographer is likely William Schuster, who according to photographic journals, was a leader in the photographer associations of the Cincinnati area.
BELLE GIBBONS: A PRETTY WOMAN IN CINCINNATI, OHIO
CARDINAL GIBBONS (1834-1921): THE FACE OF CATHOLICISM IN TURN OF THE CENTURY AMERICA
This cabinet card is a photograph of James Gibbons (1834-1921). Gibbons was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of Richmond, Virginia and as the Arch Bishop of Baltimore, Maryland. He became a Bishop while quite young and was known as the “Boy Bishop”. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1886, becoming the second American Cardinal. He was an acquaintance of every American President from Andrew Johnson to Warren Harding. He was honored by Presidents Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Gibbons advocated the creation of Catholic University and was its first Chancellor (1887). He was an advocate for labor and an author of several books and articles. His most well known book was “The Faith of Our Fathers” (1876). In later life, Gibbons was the public face of Catholicism in the United States.
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 