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We note an unidentified portrait of an American boy. Unfortunately there is no information associated with the portrait, not even the location where it was taken. Perhaps the photo was taken in a southern State, but there is no way of knowing this for sure. We believe that it was probably taken in the 1870s because of the boys clothes. The boy's round hat I think clearly dates it before the 1890s. And I think the cut-away jacket dates it before the 1880s. This was a popular style during the 60s and 70s, but in the 80s used mostly for Fautleroy suits. The long pants I think suggest that it was taken before the 1890s. But it should be recalled that ling pants were worn more commonly in rurl areas than the more stylish urban areas. The portrait seems to have been taken by an itinerant photographer, perhaps at a country fair. There is a backdrop, but the floor looks rather than outdoors in the open air rather than the inside of a portrait studio.
We can assume, I think, that the boy belong to a modest family, perhaps a farm family come to town, perhaps for the county fair.
Surely the boy is wearing his best clothing, what Mark Twain called the "other clothes". "Then Mary got out a suit of his clothing that had been used only on Sundays during two years - they were simply called his "other clothes" - and so by that we know the size of his wardrobe." [Twain, Tom] The lack of shoes could be an indication about the southern origin of this image.
Twain also sketches out a scene that thus boy could have easily fit into. "There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of watermelons and green corn and such-like truck... The women had on sun-bonnets; and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the young ones had on calico. Some of the young men was barefooted, and some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen shirt." [Twain, Huck]
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, chapter 4.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chapter 20.
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