Unusual cabinet card portrait showing the back view of a woman’s head, photographed to emphasize her elaborate late nineteenth-century hairstyle. The sitter is turned away from the camera, allowing the photographer to focus entirely on the carefully arranged coiffure consisting of a high bun combined with loose curled hair gathered at the back of the neck. The subject wears a patterned dress with a small lace collar, while the soft studio lighting and shallow focus produce a painterly, almost academic quality to the image.

The mount is printed “Evans – University Art Gallery – Ithaca, N.Y.” The elaborate illustrated reverse reads “From the ‘Qiad’ of the Cornell University Art Gallery – O. B. Evans, 74 and 76 East State St., Ithaca, N.Y.” with a decorative engraving showing campus buildings. Photographs emphasizing hairstyles or hair arrangements were occasionally produced during the Victorian era either as fashion references or technical photographic studies.

Cabinet cards documenting unusual portrait angles or specific fashion details such as hair styling are far less common than conventional frontal portraits and provide an interesting glimpse into late nineteenth-century photographic experimentation.