This cabinet card which is a bit scratched up depicts a house maid or servant holding a tray with dishes as if ready to serve her employer. She is wearing what would seem to be a typical house servant/maid uniform with apron. There is nothing to identify the young woman and I am not entirely certain of the date. The photographer is E. L. Sayers of New Bethlehem, Rimersburg and Dayton, PA. I found a number of his photographs on Google, but no information on the man himself, nor was I able to find anything about him on my old standby, Ancestry.com.
In trying to date this photograph, I narrowed it down to the 1890's, most likely from the latter half of the decade. This was using several factors in dating cabinet cards including that in the mid-1890's some cards were embossed around the edges in gold with a thin line. It is a little harder to date the card using the woman's clothing as the servant's clothing would not necessarily reflect the fashions of the time, they would be more utilitarian. I could be wrong, however about this timeline and welcome any input.
