This cabinet card portrait features a pretty young woman posing at the studio of Joseph Sasse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee’s Best isn’t just a beer brewed by the Miller Brewing Company (founded in 1855). The young woman in this photograph was likely considered one of Milwaukee’s Best eligible women by the many suitors she must have attracted. She appears to have had a fondness for jewelry evidenced by her lovely collar pin. The large buttons on her dress are interesting. In the middle of each button is a six point star. She is wearing her hair in a “Gibson Girl” type style and has a hair bow atop her head. The photographer, Joseph Sasse, according to the 1900 census, was born in Germany (1854) and married his wife Walbolia in 1888. He worked as a photographer and he is listed as working in that profession in a number of Milwaukee city directories from 1895 through 1915. He had a son, Joseph Sasse Jr. who was born in 1887. Over time his son worked as a musician and as a movie operator. The 1920 census reveals that a man named Joseph Sasse, born the same year as photographer Sasse, was divorced and an inmate in a Milwaukee jail. There is no confirmation that these are one and the same man but it certainly does seem likely.
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 