Zelda, identified by inscription on the reverse as a snake charmer, reclines across a fur-draped studio floor holding a large live constrictor aloft in both hands in this horizontal-format albumen cabinet card produced by Wendt of Boonton, New Jersey, using the studio's noted Ivory Process. The card is mounted horizontally, an unusual orientation that accommodates the full-length recumbent pose, and the studio imprint appears in embossed brown lettering along the left border. A penciled inscription on the reverse reads "Zelda / Snake [Charmer or Artist] / Roughing it [?] / [signature] / 1899."

Zelda wears an elaborately beaded and embroidered performance costume with a fitted bodice, wide decorative belt, and patterned skirt, accessorized with a pearl choker and hair ornament. She reclines with her torso raised and her head thrown back, eyes closed, while the large patterned snake coils across her body and is raised overhead in her extended arms. A second snake is visible coiled near her lower body. The backdrop depicts a classical stone architectural setting with foliage, lending an orientalist theatrical character to the composition.

The reverse carries penciled inscriptions identifying the subject as Zelda, a snake charmer, with a partially legible descriptive phrase and what appears to be a personal signature, dated 1899.