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The HBC biography section is for people or families that have achieved some degree of notariety or fame. HBC readers in many cases have submitted family portraits. HBC has until now not added them to the biography section. We believe now that this is a mistake. Many of the HBC readers contributing family portraits can also provide details about the boy and him family. This background information help us to assess social trends and put the fashions involved in perspective. This is just why the biographical section is an important part of HBC. As a result, HBC has decided to create pages for these relatively unknown people, when some basic family data is available. Incidentally if you find a relative here, please do tell us somehing about him. Here we are listing these biographies alpahabetically to facilitate looking up individual names. The alphabdetical list is the primary data base in this section. While we have not persued geneolgical resreach on these individual, having the names and in many cases the loaction provide the potential to acquire more back ground information in the future which may provide additonal insights into the fashion and life style trends.
This studio portrait is of William Faherty who was called Bill. He wears a formal Eton collar and a knickers suit with long stockings for the porrait. The suit was probably navy blue. The suit was a very popular style for a boy's best suit. The Eton collar was more populsr in Englsnd than Amerrica. Not all boys wore Eton collars with these suits, but we see quite a few boys with these collars. Eton collars were more popular with conservsative, well to do families. The portrait is not dated, but looks to have been taken in the 1910s. The studio was M. Konrad, 4-2 W. 125th St New York City. The photo is done in a paper mount with a tissue overlay.
We know little about John, but a portrait shows a very English face and he wears the Eton collar that was was so common at turn of the century England. The portrait reads, "John Christopher Bradshaw Falleglove born on Chrismas day, 1887. The second date reads April 1898. The word before April is very hard to read I will tell you what I get J (then three dots) poix or pox. I believe this is a portrait of a child who died in 1898. Presumably the portrait was made in 1898. It is unsigned.
We have no biographical information on James Farber other than that he was an American boy. We do not even know where he lived in America, but from his coat I would guess a northern state. We do have two family portraits. They are undated, but look to have been taken about 1905. James looks to be 3-5 years of age. In one portrait he wears a winter coat. In the other a sailor tunic, one of the most popular outfits for younger boys at the time. In both portraits James has perfectly done think ringlet curls.
Here we see a CDV portrait of John Faulkes, son of Silas Faulkes. He looks to be about 5 years old. He lived in Richmond, Indiana. John wears a button-on knee pants suit. Notice the waistband which hides tthe buttons. There is scalloped detailing. Notice the angeled styling. We notice both tunics and junior suits dine like this. That was characteristic of the 1870s. The CDV is undated, but the CDV format and the suit styling strongly suggest the 1870s. The white stockings suggests the 1860s ot early-70s. The studio in Richmond was G.W. Stigleman.
This photo postcard shows Grant Fehvenbach in his First Communion costu,e. All we know about the portrait is the boy's name and the fact that he is American. The portrait is undated, but we would guess about 1910. The portrait is interesting for a number of reasons. Here Grant wears a fancy blouse and bow, but not a suit. We note many portraits of boys doing their First Communion beginning in the 1910s, but few earlier. And First Communion portraits are rare before the turn of the 20th century. We can not yet explain this chronology.
Hulbert Fels had a formal photographic portrait taken about 1900-05. The olive framed card and albumen print suggest it was taken around the turn of the 20th century, but probbly not later than 1905. Hulbert is dressed very formally, with a white tie, buttonaire and even holding gloves. I am not sure wht the event was, perhaps a graduation. I don't see any religious props suggesting a communion or confirmation. I am not sure precisely how to describe his hat on the table. Hulbert wears a three-piece suit knee pants suit with long stockings. Note the cut-away cut of the jacket. There is a watch fob on the vest. I think the stockings are black rather than matching the suit. He has a center-part hair cut.
Grant Wood painted young Gordon Fennell, Jr. (aged about 5) in 1929. Gordon was sitting in a large overstuffed chair with a ball in his hands. He wears a white blouse with a Peter Pan collar and string tie with tassels. He also wears button-on short pants. Unfortunately we have only a black and white reproduction. This is a wonderfully executed portrait, but illustrates a difficulty faced by artists in the modern age. I'm not sure the portait here adds anything a photograph would not have provided.
We see a cabinet card of Seymour Ferris, a New York boy. The dealer interpted the writing as Terris, but the writuing on the back shows a strabngely written 'T". We are fauirly confident that the boy's name is Ferris and not Terris because Ferris was a much more common name. We can't say categorically that Terris did not exist, but we can say that it was not a very common name. Seymour wears what looks like a corduroy Norfolk knee pants suit with an Eton collar and small floppy bow. And as with most American boys, dark long stockings abd high-top shoes. And as with The card is not dated, but on the back we see that he was born in 1881. As Seymour looks to be about 10 years old or so, it means that the portrait was taken about 1890/91.
Here we have a problem. We have both a dated and identified CDV, but unfortunately the last mame is not very clearly written. Our best guess is Temple Byron Felding. For some reason, there is only one name on the back of the card, although the boys may be Temple and Byron. We will include the back of the CDV so any interested handwriting expers can offer their attempts at deciphering the script. It is available image because it is dated and thus offers some clues as to the chronology of two important fashion trends, boys wearing dresses and sailor suits. Thus we want go archive it, and have placed it here, at least until any better information comes along as to the children's identity. There are two boys about 2-7 years old. The younger boy wears a very decorative dress with lace collar and cuffs and a smocked bodice. There is also a colored sash. We see fewer boys wearing dresses in the 1890s and the ones we see are like the boy here, very young. His older bother wears a classic sailor suit with traditionsl three-stripe detailing. Some sailor suits were done with long pants. One of the few outfits with long pants that boys this age wore in the 1890s. Despite the age difference. the boys seem very close given the pose. The studio was John Ingham in Sale, a Manchester suburb. The CDV was the first albumen process format to become important (1860s). This CDV was taken in 1892. Unlike America, the CDV continued to be important in England and European countries into the 1890s.
An American press photographer took a portrait of Ernest Fischback, a cabin boy on the Graf Zepplin when it landed at Lakehurst, New Jersey (1929). Most German boys in the 1920s finished school at about 14 years of age. Only a minority of children persued secondary studies. So the boys finished scgools got a range of jobs. Many began aprenticeships. Ernest got a job on the Gran Zeppelin which must have been a really exciting experience for him. The caption read, "Ernest Fischback, 15-year old German cabin boy on the Graf Zeppelin and youngest member of the crew, will serve in the same capacity when the giant air liner starts its world cruise thursday." The photograph was dated August 6, 1929.
This is a cabinet studio portrait of Harold Fiske, "son of Addie la Selle Fiske". Harold looks to be about 5 years old. He wears a long overcoiat with whsat looks like a Turkish fez. The studio was Taylor, 509 Court St. Beatrice, Nebraska. The portrait is undated, nut we would guess was taken in the 1890s.
Here we have a portrait of who we believe to be the Fithian boys. We know for sure that their grandfathr was Dr. Edward James Fithian, a well known prominent member of Grove City Pennsylvania society. Dr. Fithian was a 32nd degree Mason and the vice-president of the Grove City Bank which still stands today. He also held the patent for a gas and gasoline power engine. He built it for the Bessemer Gas Company also in Grove City. Of course the boys could be from the other side of the family. They boys look to be about 10 anf 15 years old. The portrit is by the prestigious photography studio Aimee Dupont. The younger boy wears a short pants Eton suit. His older brother wears a checked sport jacket with long pants. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1930s. The dogs in the photo are Black Springer Spaniels and belonged to the boys. One was named Prince.
Harold and Phyllis Fitzroy-Carrington were extensively photographed outside what is probably their home in New York in about 1905-15. A HBC contributor has a collection of nine albums of photographs that were taken by the childrens father, an enthusiastic amateur photographer. He was obviously a wealthy man as they also had a home called 'Mallowfield' at Mamaroneck. N.Y. There are approx 100 photos in each album, many of them of Harold and his
siblings playing with toys, pets, bikes etc some in swimming costumes, some playing musical instruments. Yje collection is a wonderful view of childhood in a wealthy NewcYork family in the years before World War I.
The sailor suit in the late 19th and early 20th was a popular school style for boys through about age 10, after this it became less common. After World War I the sailor suit became worn by younger boys usually up to about age 7 or 8 years old. The photographic studio portrait here is of Charles Samuel Fix. I'm not sure about his age, but would guess
about 10 years old. Charles wears a very smartly done sailor suit. Note the sun burst emblem on his dickey and the buttoning collar. The portrait was taken by a Cleveland Ohio studio "R.T. Krumhar", so I would assume this child was from Cleveland or the nearby area. The photo is not dated but from the type and style of the photo and the way the boy is dressed, I believe this photo would be circa 1890.
Here we see Lloyd Flint with his parents. The portrait is undated, but was probably taken about 1915. We do not know where they lived in America. Lloyd looks to be about 3 years old. Lloyd seems to be wearing a wehite shorts set with checked trim and white long stockings. We see him a couple years later in 1917 with his parents again. He is dressed similarly, but his outfit this time does not have the checked trim. Also he wears doublr-strap sandals.
These children are Robert, Leo and Bernard Flynn, having fun, probably in their own backyard, by playing at camping. Robert is about 8 years old, Leo seems about 2-3 years, and Bernard seems about 5 years. It is obviously summer time. The boys are all dressed in white, but Robert wears white long stockings with his short trousers even for relaxation, whereas his younger brother Bernard has bare knees and white ankle or three-quarter socks. They have a play tent which seems to consist or a blanket or tarpualin of some sort thrown over a ridge pole. Judging from the family name, the Flynn family was probably Irish and Roman Catholic. Robert looks almost as though he could have come from his first communion at a local church since the white long stockings and knee pants or knickers short trousers were standard dress for such occasions in the 1910s. The snapshot is undated, but we would guess the 1910s. It is a klittle difficult to date because the clothing details are rather washed out. The boys had a colorful uncle named Patrick, a brother of the boys' mother, who lived in New Haven, Connecticut, and was a fashionable bootlegger, who drove around in a silver Cadillac with a chuaffeur. The car had bullet-holes in its sides and was the subject of local gossip. The boys' mother, Jane, was extremely pious and is said to tried to atone for her brother's irregular and apparently illegal lifestyle by constant religious devotions.
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