*** English families -- 1870s








English Families: The 1870s

English families 1870s
Figure 1.--The photographic record of the 1870s still consists mostly of studio portrait. While these beautifully indicate fashion trends, but life style and social patterns are only hinted at. Illustratiins like this one help to give as idea of life style and family activities. Of course they are not as defunitive as the photographic record. This seems a reasonably sound depiction of evening life for a prosperous middle-class familiy. They may read, enjoyed games, or played musical instruments. Father might read to the family as shown here. Selectiins varied. Some fathers may have leabed heavily on the Bible. Others may have dealved into popular works such as the latest Dicken's work. Note the table lamps, it was proably fired by whale oil. Unfortunately we do not know the illusrtrator here, but it does look like a period piece. Perhaps a reader will be able to identify it. This is important because the date will affect the accuracy, especially of the fashions depicted.

Younger boys continued to wear desses. We also notice kilt suits. We notice some boys wearing tunics after being breeched. Most boys wore suits in portraits and family portaits during the 1870s. Of course there were social class factors at play here. Most portraits were of upper- and middle-class English families. We see some working-class portraits, but they are not very common, especially in comparison the the proportion of the population. This is much more of a factor in the English photographic record than the american. We see more working-class families in the 1860s and 70s with the less expensive albumen negative prints (CDVs and cabinet cards), but the social class factor was still very pronounced. Younger boys might wear knee pants or bloomer knickers, but most boys still wore long pants. We begin to see more sailor suits. Girls wore dresses, the length depended on the girl's age, although we see even some younger girls wearing long dresses like their mothers.

Alice and James (1870)

This CDV shows a nicely posed brother and sister, The girl wears an elaborate, voluminous dress thatv has baloon sleeves. I'm not sure how to describe the dress, but there is no defined waisliner. She holds a bird, presumably not real. Her little brother wears a suit that seems to have a diagonal front. He looks to have a small Eton collar and a narrow bow. The pants look to be knickers which he wears with long stockings and low-cut shoes. He holds a violin. I'm not sure that meant he could really play it. Handwritten on reverse, "Alice 10 years and James 6 years. 1870." Unfortunately we do not know their family name. The photographer was J.J. Shaw, Photographic Institute, 103 St. Johns Wood Terrace, London.

Blackburn Family (1870s)

This CDV portrait shows the Blackburn family, mom and dad with three children. Mother holds a book which was not all that common in these old photographs. We thought it might be a Bible, but does not look like one. She also has some kind of badge which was also not very common. Father seems rather elderly for such a young family. He is wearng what looks more like a military jacket than a suit. Note the medal. We wonder if they may be involved with the Salvation Army The Salvation Army was founded in England and cwas already a well-established institutiin by the 1870s. Its main message besides Christianity was temperance. Unfortunately, the image is not clear enough to tell. The children look to be about 3-11 years old. The girl wears a hat, but we are not sure how to describe it. She also seems to have a badge. The youngest boy wears a cap which we can also not identify. He seems to be wearing a jumper (sweater). This is earlier than we see many boys wearing sweaters. The older boy wears a sailor cap with a ship tally and a pom, what became a French style but was not commom for English sailor caps. He has a collar-buttoning jacket wirn with a small Eton collar. Both boys wear knee pants and what may be hand knitted long stockings. The CDV portrait is undated, but looks like the 1870s. The studio was Gibbs in Middlesboro, Yorkshire.

Unidentified Birmingham Family (1873)

This CDV portrait shows three unidentified children, two boys and a girl. They look to be about 5-12 years old. We see a range of popular 1870s styles. The younger boys wars a tunic suit with decorated knee pants, the older boy a very plain cut-away jacket with bloomer knickers. Their little sister wears a heavily embroidered dress with a two tier skirt. Notice how small the neckwear and collars are. The portrait was taken in September 1873. The studio was J. Burgoyne in Birmingham.

Unidentified Leeds Family (1870s)

Here is a carte-de-visite (CDV) portrait by Hanson of Leeds. It shows an unidentified family group of children. We have rarely seen such a great and well-posed CDV. The portrait spaeks highly of the studio. The family is unidentified. Leeds is in Yorkshire which at the time was an important center of the textile industry. This was clearly arosperous family. There are six children. Four are clearly girls. The two younger girls at the sides are dresed identically. The older girls wear a different, but also identical dresses. The boy at the back wears a dark suit. We can't tell much about his outfit except that he has a small white collar. We are unsure about the youngest child. We suspect that he is a boy who has not yet been breeched. The child looks about 4-5 years old. His dress seems similar to that of his sisters, only a darker color. Unfortunately we can not tell what color the dresses are.

Unidentified Family Garden Family

This undated outdoor family portrait looks to have been taken in the 1870s. We are not positive about the date and welcome reader insights. We note quite a number of these outsoors portraits, in this case a back garden (yard) portraits. Or at least whatis meant to be a back garden. We rarly see American portraits taken oursude. We are not sure if this suggests the subjets are wealthy and able to engage a photograoher or if British studios were more active in seeling out opportinities outside the studio. We see amother with we think her four children. They look to be about 5-20 years old. The child at fromt wears a smock-like dress with pantalettes. We are not sure if the child is a boy or girl. A girl is the most likely answer, but younger boys in the 1870s commonly wore dresses. The two boys look to be about 10-13 years old. The younger boy wears a kne ants sailor suit. His older brother weas a collar-buttoning jacket with an Eton collar. They have an older sister in her late-teens or early-20s.

Idealized Middle-class Family

The photographic record of the 1870s still consists mostly of studio portrait. While these beautifully indicate fashion trends, but life style and social patterns are only hinted at. Illustratiins like this one help to give as idea of life style and family activities (figure 1). Of course an illustratiinn is not as definitive as the photographic record. This one seems a reasonably sound depiction of evening life for a prosperous middle-class familiy. It is not dated, but the clothing seems a reasonable fit with the 1870s. They may read, enjoyed games, or played musical instruments. A stereo card viewer which appeared in the 1860s was another common item. Father might read to the family as shown here. Selections varied. Some fathers may have leaned heavily on the Bible. Notice the photographic albumn and knitting on the table. Others amy have delaed into popular works such as the latest Dicken's work. Note the table lamps, it was proably fired by whale oil. Father wears a smoking jacket. The grandparents, who were often cared for by their parents, wear old fashion clothing. There also appears to be a maiden aunt. And the boy wears a decorated knee pants suit with striped long stockings. Unfortunately we do not know the illustrator here, but it does look like a period piece.

Back Garden Scene (late-1870s)

We see four children wjo look to ve about 5-18 years old. The two boys look to be about 10-13 years old. This cabinet card is difficult to date. We think it was taken in the late-1870s, but the early 80s is certainly possible. The lack of Fauntleroy styling suggests to us that it was not taken in the late-80s. CDVs dominated the 1860s and 70s. We do ot begin to see many caninet cards until the late-70s/ The fact that there is no studio logo and text on the mount suggests thar it was an early caninet card. The two boys wear knee pants, but an early style and not the traditional styles suits which given the ages we think rules out the early- or ecen mid-70s. The younger boy wears a sailor suit, but wihout the tradutionalstyling that became popular in the 80s. The older boy wears a Eton collar suit with a collar-buttonong jacket. The collar-buttoning jacket looks more like the 70s than 80s. We think the older boy may be wearing knee pants suit, but it is not clear. The youngr child wears a dress and patalettes. but we we are not enirely sure. We think that outdoors portraits were more common in the 80s than 70s, but this is something we have just begun to date.

Unidedtified Yorkshire Family (late-1870s)

This unidentified family had three children, two boys and a girl. All we know for sure is that they were from Huddersfield. They look to be about 6-15 years old. The CDV portrait is undated. The mount looks like the 1880s, but the set more like the 70s. the clothes seem more appropriaste to the 1870s. Thus we would guess that the portrait was taken in the late-1870s or early-80s. The nice thing about internet publishing is that we can shift these pages around if readers add useful asessments to the posted images. Both boys have Eton like collars even though they wear sailor suits. The yonger boy wears a very basic sailor suit with little detailing and bloomer knickers. The older boy wears a much more elaborate long pants sailor suit. There big sister wears a dark, but rather elaborate long dress. It is so dark that it is difficult to see the details. We note elaborate flounces and she has a locket. The portrait is notable for the care with the children's hair. Notice the razor parts. It is a also a good example as to how girls parted their hair in the middle and boys on the side. Although perfectly parted, the girl's hair is very plainly done.

Pastor's Family (1870s-80s)

There is a long and amazing story which will result in you getting some SUPERB unique and very rare shots in a LONG series of late 1870s-1880s Middle Class family in South-East England next year. To cut it VERY short... I won an old album for $10 on eBay from the US and when it arrived I could not believe what I saw. HUNDREDS of EXCELLENT unique amateur photos of the family of a country pastor, with about 1/3 of the shots featuring his sons (aged about 9-13 and 13-17 respectively) and their friends, largely full-length with excellent detail on the clothing. Well, earlier this year I visited the village where they were taken and saw the house they were taken at, spent the day with the current pastor and saw the church window that was dedicated to the pastor himself. The album was taken to the Kent County Archives (as the photos and album are beginning to disintigrate and have a shelf life of about another decade before the primitive glue destroys them forever) who have digitally scanned and photographed every shot for their archives and in a few weeks I will have a CD of them all and will send to you one by one. I really am confident this will make up an excellent series of pages







HBC







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Created: 8:32 PM 12/14/2013
Last updated: 10:05 PM 3/18/2024