![Cabinet card blanks, late 1880s](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2021-08/P2017-65-1.jpg?itok=_u9xRsUA)
Cabinet card blanks, late 1880s
Cabinet card blanks, late 1880s
Cardboard
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Photographers ordered the blanks for cabinet cards in lots of one hundred or more. By the 1880s, they could choose from a variety of colors and edge styles. After purchasing the cards, they would often send them to printers to emblazon the fronts with their names and addresses, and the backs with promotional messages.