What's His Story?

One of things I like about nineteenth century cabinet cards is the fact that they’re posed. Having your picture taken was a form of documentation—often marking a turning point in your life or the life of your family—so you made no attempt to look playful or sexy or delighted: you just were. But who was this young man really?
I don’t know when this photograph was taken, but I’m thinking he might have been one of my great uncles, and perhaps he had just started his first job. I remember my father telling me that in the Victorian household my grandmother grew up in, you weren’t allowed to sit down for meals until you had started working. So right now I'm imaging George just sitting down to scrumptious roast beef dinner with Yorkshire pudding.