c. 1890 Cabinet Card Photograph of North Dakota Frontier Tobacco Trading Post
Jamestown, ND: C. C. Hibbs, c. 1890. A visually-rich image documenting the material culture found in a small frontier store in the upper Midwest. Immediately apparent in the proprietor's makeshift store are his scattered available goods, a counter with a weigh scale on top and a painted sign hanging overhead "CIGARS & TOBACCO" or "STORES & TOBACCO" [?]. The sun can be seen through a low haze of fog or smoke [perhaps from clearing the land] while a second man working atop the scaffolding at the gable end of the log structure - likely inserting shims between the logs prior to chinking, appears to be too busy to turn around and join in on the photograph. An early gelatin silver POP print [4-3/4" x 3-7/8" wide] with a circular exposed image mounted onto a beveled edge cabinet card [5-1/4" x 4-1/4" wide] having "C. C. Hibbs, Jamestown, No. Dakota." printed in purple ink along the bottom edge. Verso blank. Image w. light surface scratches, soil spots and a few scratches in negative [showing as black lines a lower left] else a clean and well preserved card. Item #3340
Since “No. Dakota,” is printed in the photographer's credit line along the bottom edge of the card, we presume the photograph dates from after Nov. 2, 1889 when North Dakota gained statehood. Hibbs is also referenced in the book “They Captured the Moment: Dakotas Photographers 1853-1920” (Robert Kolbe and Brian Bade, 2006), for the year 1887.
Price: $250.00 CAD other currencies