Conductor
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What it is:
Real photo post card measuring 3.5 x 5.5 inches.
What I know about it:
Different online sources disagree slightly about the dates indicated by the paper manufacturer’s markings (Aristo, with a bird logo). Most say 1905 to around 1907, but at least one extended the range to 1913.
Comments:
I’d welcome any thoughts on this uniform, but I’m assuming our guy here is a conductor on a city railway or trolley line. Unfortunately, all I can see is the driver’s number, so I can’t determine what city it might be. In any case, it seems he takes enough pride in his work to commemorate the job with a portrait. It’s an interesting composition, with the uniform that is at once dapper and proletarian, the rustic tablecloth, the almost haphazard pile of pretty flowers (or is it a bouquet?), all posed in a simple, direct way in front of a luxe scene on a painted backdrop. It’s an odd mixture of elements that somehow works very well for me. I wonder if it would work as well in color. Incidentally, note also what appears to be a posing stand in use behind him.
Pics of Then 
Love it, and your description! I don’t *think* that big trouser cuffs were a fashion thing then; my impression is that his pants are hand-me-downs.
Thanks! Yes, I noticed the cuffs, too. I thought perhaps they were just poorly altered. Now that I think about it, I wonder what would have constituted the uniform, meaning, I wonder what the employer would have provided, besides the hat and jacket. Would the pants have been his own? I suppose that’s likely.
Or they could have been handed down from a previous conductor. I do remember an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about working in the railroad yard in the 1910s, in which the protagonist was required to buy his own overalls, but I don’t know if that would apply here.
Oh, that’s a possibility, too.
Hey, look–I was waiting for something to process, so I idly searched “trolley conductor uniform 1905,” and got this (from 1898, though)–doesn’t it look so similar? From Maryland: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/4891387056/
This might be relevant–another pic of the same guy, on the job!
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/60861613@N00/9059652533/
Or maybe not the same guy–I’m not sure the ears quite match.
Either way, thanks for the fun pictures. I googled a bit before posting, too, to make sure I was correct in thinking it was a trolley conductor’s uniform, but I didn’t see these images.