Who is the handsome gentleman in this cabinet card photo? That information might be lost to history, but we know from the printing on the card that the image was shot at Carl Thiel’s Art Gallery in Duluth. Handwritten on the back of the card is the date: “Jan. 1896.”

The location of Thiel’s Art Gallery is not necessarily a mystery. We know from the Minnesota Historical Society’s Directory of Minnesota Photographers that Thiel’s studio was at 105 W. Superior St. between 1891 and 1901. Prior to that he had a studio in the Ingalls Block. It is also known that he had a studio in Hibbing in 1914.

Random item of interest: Thiel was apparently a friend of landscape painter Feodor von Luerzor.

And there’s a rather salacious news story about Thiel that popped up a few years ago that can be read in the comments of a previous Thiel photo post on Perfect Duluth Day.

There are more Carl Thiel photo’s on Shadows and Light: Keith Dotson’s Official Fine Art Photography Blog.