Photographic Portraits.
Seven Images Depicting African American Women. Including: 1) & 2) two cartes-de-visite of young women from Natchez, Mississippi, each image vignetted, the sitters with their hair in updos, ornamented with lace, both wearing large earrings and necklaces; 3) cabinet card of a standing woman in an elaborate dress with bustle, lace cuffs, double-breasted bodice with two rows of buttons, long gold chain and rings, with her hands folded on a pedestal taken at the Rival Promenade Studio by Porter & Palmiter in Kalamazoo, Michigan, circa 1880-1881 (photographer Martha Boswell Palmiter inherited her father's business and operated it alone for some years before marrying); 4) cabinet card bust portrait of a woman wearing a dark dress with intricately beaded placket, the collar secured with a bar pin, the image taken by George Downing in Topeka, Kansas, pre-1908; 5) nicely preserved cabinet card of a small child in a wooden chair wearing a plaid dress and leather boots, seated with hands in lap looking into the camera with a concerned facial expression, no studio credits; 6) cabinet card image taken in an outdoors setting depicting a Black woman in plaid ruffles holding a white infant, no studio information; and 7) a charming turn-of-the 19th century studio portrait mounted on an original gray embossed mat depicting a family of three: a seated woman in fancy hat, lace blouse, and trimmed jacket with a small child in a sailor's suit standing by her side, and a man standing behind the two decked out in a three-piece suit with tie, overcoat, and bowler hat. (7)