Cabinet Cards, which were usually around 6 1/2" x 4 1/2", were albumen prints that were affixed to a cardboard that had been preprinted. The albumen print process, incorporates beaten egg whites and iodide of potassium. The paper was exposed to light with a glass negative pressed into it and then developed in gallic acid. It leaves a beautiful tannish brown image, that you can see holds up well after over a hundred years. The same technique of a collodian coated glass plate and albumen contact prints were used by Coovert until well into the 1920's regardless of the size of the picture.
(Click on picture for larger image.)
This piece of "trick" photography was described in a book, Photographic Amusements, by Walter Woodbury. Published in 1896, it incorporated dozens of ideas for "trick" photography that had been accumulating in journals and periodicals of the period. In this case it was a double exposure. But a very, very careful double exposure. It involved opening and closing a lens and blocking part of the image. The lighting had to be exactly right.
In this picture of Mary, we see her both in the wagon and behind it.
(click on picture for larger image.)
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| "In Search of J.C. Coovert" |
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Coovert took the equipment used for the indoor banquet pictures and went outdoors. It was the massive 15 foot tripod that provided the high angle on dry land, and the legs supported the camera in floods by reaching underwater for firm ground. Accompanied by his black assistant, John Nevels, the heavy and cumbersome equipment was trundled to the field to create the extraordinary images we have now rediscovered.
Coovert had also experimented in his studio in Greenville. This set of pictures of his niece Mary and her St. Bernard, Frank, were placed on "Cabinet Cards".
continued
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