Figure 1.--This unidentified cabinet card and the mount dates to the 1890s. Thre are five children, they look to be bou1 1-12 years old. We think four are boys. The three older brothers are obviusly boy. The baby is less clear, but note the side hair part. The portrait is a classic example of age grading. The boys wear in age order, a dress, kilt suit, blouse and knee pants, and knee pants suit. The studio was O.G. Oyloe in Brookings, South Dakota.

This basic similarity of clothing began to change in the 19th century. It is not immidately apparent just why parents, perhaps mostly moyhers, mothers decided that children should be dressed like adults. We ay nothers because ot was mostly mothgers who were resonsible for raising younger children. Several factors may have been responsible. One factor was the Enlightenment and philosphers like Rosseau who began to wuggest that childhood was a destinct period of human development and that children should be treated differently. This thinking begn in the 18th century, but was not widely adopted until the 19th century. Another factor was the rising affluence of the middle class and working classes as a result of the industrial revolution. And the declining relative cost of clothing in terns of the hours of work needed to purchase clothing may have been a factor. With the increasing recognition that childhood was a special time of life and that children had special needs we begion to see the development of dedicated boys' styles. The first such item was the skeleton suit. While appearing in the late-18th century, only with the 19th century did the skelton become a major style. Dedicated styles for boys developed first, but eventally we begin to see girls' styles as well. The ideaof age grading appeared and gradually grew in umportance. Age grading deveoped into a major aspect of children's fashions in the second half of the century. And as an acident of history, age grasing became incresinly pronounced t about the same time photographt=y was developed. Thus we have a detailed historical record. Age grading became a well established convention, although the styles involved and the conventions practiced varied substantially over time. Thus we see a range of different garments being used for age grading.They have included hair styles, headwear, collars, bows, jacket styles, skirted garments, pants type and length, pants suspension hosiery, and footwear.

Created: 7:52 AM 11/21/2015
Last updated: 7:52 AM 11/21/2015