Major S. E. Houghton stands at full length in this albumen carte-de-visite, produced by Ranger and Dwelle's Photograph Parlors at 28 East Genesee Street, Franklin Buildings. The printed caption along the lower mount border identifies him as 20 years old, 31 inches in height, and 41 pounds in weight, placing this image firmly within the tradition of promotional portraiture for little person performers that flourished during the 1860s and 1870s.

Houghton is dressed in a fitted dark frock coat, matching trousers, and polished shoes, with a light cravat and what appears to be a watch chain at his waist. He holds a small cane at his side and stands beside an ornate cast-iron pedestal table bearing a top hat, with a draped velvet cloth pooled at the table's base to his right and a second fabric backdrop gathered to his left.

The staged props, including the top hat and cane, were deliberate theatrical markers used in promotional CDVs of this era to reinforce a subject's public persona and showmanship. The reverse bears the penciled notation "LOBAZ .89."