Figure 1.--we note women and girl wore quite a wide variety of clothes. Hre girls wear sailor outfits. One consistent pttern is that the dresses or skirts are often extremely long, sometimes even covering the shoes. Some girls wore shorter dresses, but long dresses were much more common. Note the shorter dress worn by the rider's sister. This cabinet card of Muriel and Irene Anderson was photographed at 'Hallyards' by C.Reid of Wishaw.It was probablytaken in the 1880s. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

We do not note modern riding attire in 19th century photogrphs. This is in part because women did not wear pants in the 19th century. In fact, we note women and girl wore quite a wide variety of clothes. There are photographs of girls wearing many of the popular styles of the day. Some girls just as their brothers, for example, wore sailor outfits. Notice the girls here even wear broad-brimmed sailor hats. One consistent pttern is that the dresses or skirts are often extremely long, sometimes even covering the shoes. Some girls wore shorter dresses, but long dresses were much more common. These do not appear to be dresses commonly worn, but rather special garments for riding. I'm not sure, but there may have even been some sort of skirt that was put on the rider. Hopefully a riding enthusiast will provide us some background information.

Created: July 1, 2003
Last updated: July 1, 2003