Figure 1.--Here we see three sublings in a CDV portrait taken in 1872. The boy wears a tunic with military trim. The girls wear very different dresses. The younger girl wear a plaid dress with a low necklione and baloon sleeves. The older girl weaes a plain dark colored dresswith a neck-line collar. She had very wide-leg, plain pantalettes. Both girls wear white long stockings. The studio was Emile Schultz in Braunschweig.

We have some limited information on the 1870s. We begin to see substantial numbers of Germam photographs for the first time in the 1870s. Most were CDVs. Germany after the Franco-Prussian War was united around the Prussian Kingdom (1871). Until that time there were still substantial differences among German states. Younger boys wore dresses, but German boys seemed to have been breeched earlier than boys in other countries such as England and France. Yhis is something we are still assessing. Tunics continued to be popular for boys. Boys wore all kinds of suits. Sailor suits were less popular than in other countries, at least we have not yet found many examples in the photographic record. Suit styles were still not as standardized in the 1870s as they would become later. We note younger boys wearing cut-away jackets. There were a range of different jacket types. We note generally small often white collars. Many boys did not wear neckwear. We see both knee pants and long pants suits. Here age was a factor. Long pants were the most common, but we see more younger boys wearing shortened-length pants. Some children were dessed like. We note three boys wearing identical velvet suits. Prince Wilhelm wore sailor suits in the 1860s. We are not prescisely sure when German boys commonly began wearing them. Long pants were still what most boys wore. We see some knee pnys. There were social class factors here. Knee pants were most common almong affluent, fashion concious families. Children commonly wore long stockings, including white stockings. We are unsure about the hosiery boys in long pants wore. Girls of course wore dresses. We see dresses in a wide variety of styles. Some younger girls had low necklines. The dresses were worn with long stockings and sometimes pantalettes.

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Created: 11:00 PM 5/14/2012
Last updated: 11:00 PM 5/14/2012