United States Gender Trends (1860s)


Figure 1.-- Here we see an unidentified Chicago brother and sister, we think in the late-1860s. The children look to be about 5-7 years old. The boy wears what looks to be a tunic tuncked into his trousers. Perhaps he has recently been breched. His little sister wears a an elaborate dress with the bodice done in a different material than the highly decorated, voluninous skirt. Whe also wears pantalettes and white stockings. Their shoes are quite different. Actually at this time yiu begin to see boys and girls wearing very similar footwear. The studio was Aldridge & Merriman in Chicago. They also offered painting.
We note girls wearing binnets in the 1860s, but we are sure yet about headweair styles. Mothers wanted to show hair and thus headwear is absent in most photographic portraits. American girls in the 1860s wore a range of blouses, skirts and dresses. They did not wear pants which is helpful in assessing gender in unidentified portraits. Some fashions were foexible such as lair length, girls of all ages followed an inflexible rule--only wearing skirted garments. Younger boys might wear dresses, but girls dis not wear pants. And the popularity of the CDV leaves us an enormous photographic record. We see a range of styles. Younger children might have low-necklines, but this was becoming less common as high necllines were becoming standard. Dresses were mostly done with defined waists. Boys might wear simple, often plain suits like cut-away jackets. Girls on the other hand commonly wore elaborate dresses using considerable amounts of fabric in addition to ertra petticoats. And we notice elablorte decoration. The dresses were commonly worn with voluminous petticots and/or hoop skirts, at least for the older girls. Skirt were also worn. We are not entiely sure just how common skirts were. The photogrphic records stringly suggests that dresses were much important than blouses and skirts. A factor, however, may be that children were commonly dressed up in their best outfits. We also see pantalettes as children wore dresses with skirts above the ankles. White long stockings were standard. Stockings and footwear were similar for both boys and girls.








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Created: 3:06 AM 2/9/2015
Last updated: 3:06 AM 2/9/2015