Figure 1.--Here we have a portrait of the three Bartle brothers from Ontario, Canada. The portrait is undated. The reader who sent it to us estimates that it was probably taken some time between 1895-1910. We mught guess that it was taken after the turn-of-the-20th century, but during the 1900s. One reason that it is difficult to date the image is that the boys wear old well worn clothes.

Here we have a portrait of the three Bartle brothers from Ontario, Canada . The portrait is undated. The reader who sent it to us estimates that it was probably taken some time between 1895-1910. We might guess that it was taken after the turn-of-the-20th century, but during the 1900s. One reason that it is difficult to date the image is that the boys wear old well worn clothes. The lack of fashionable styles makes it difficult to come up with an estimated date. The portrait is somewhat unusual in that it seems to be a professionally done portrait. Most professional portraits have children done up by their parents in their best clothes. Here there was no attempt to dress up the children and is thus of interest as it shows how working-class children might have dressed at the time.

The Boys

Here we have a portrait of the three Bartle brothers. They are presumably brothers. We would guess that they are about 8-13 years old.

Family

The children have tools. We wonder if their father might have operated a workshop of some kind, like a bicycle workshop. One boy seems to be playing with a bicycle pump.

Location

We know the portrait was taken in Ontario, Canada. Had we not known that the boys were Canadian, we might have thought they were German.

Chronology

The portrait is undated. The reader who sent it to us estimates that it was probably taken some time between 1895-1910. We might guess that it was taken after the turn-of-the-20th century, but during the 1900s. One reason that it is difficult to date the image is that the boys wear old well worn clothes. The lack of fashionable styles makes it difficult to come up with an estimated date.

Portrait

The portrait is somewhat unusual in that it seems to be a professionally done portrait. Most professional portraits have children done up by their parents in their best clothes. Here there was no attempt to dress up the children and is thus of interest as it shows how working-class children might have dressed at the time.

Clothing

The boys wear old, worn clothing--very unusual in a high-quality professional portrait. The boys wear kneepants and are barefoot. Note the one boy's suspenders. One bot wears a turtle-neck sweater.

Hair Styles

Note that the boys have cropped hair, except for the older brother. I am not sure why this was.

Reader Assessment

A HBC reader has a different take on the portrait. "This portrait of the Bartle Brothers is interesting because it is a high quality studio portrait, and yet it shows four small boys in clothing that is clearly not their Sunday best. Their clothing looks like what you'd expect to see on children of the working class, except that working class parents who could afford such a fine portrait would surely put in the effort to dress their boys in the best clothes that they could find, maybe even borrowing some clothes if necessary. I think that it's far more likely that they are the children of people who are well above working class, and so comfortable in their social status that they would think it cute to dress their sons as ragamuffins for a portrait. The presence of the bicycle pump confirms their comfortable status, as bicycles were still luxury items at that time, filling a role comparable to iPods today. I like that picture. I bet their parents did too." HBC tends to think this unlikely. Our concept of the fashion conventions of the time is that even the poor tried to copy the fashion styles of the very rich. We think that parents at the time would have not found it cute to dress their children as ragamuffins.

Created: 7:47 PM 10/5/2005
Last edited: 3:57 AM 10/29/2005