Figure 1.-- Here we have an unidentified American family. There is no indication when the portrait was taken or where. The fashions and hairstyles look to us to be be from the 1880s. The studio depicts the children in a rural setting. The children, however look like city kids to us. There are four children and two dolls. It is not immediately apparent who is who in the portrait.

Here we have an unidentified American family. There is no indication when the portrait was taken or where. The fashions and hairstyles look to us to be be from the 1880s. The studio depicts the children in a rural setting. The children, however look like city kids to us. There are four children and two dolls. It is not immediately apparent who is who in the portrait. All the children seem to be wearing dresses, but we think some are boys. It is also a colorized portrait, very professionally done. The color was added by hand. It is an unusual size, 7 3/8" x 9 3/4". It is not a cabinent card, but rather a larger size presumably especially made for framing and a wall hanging. The portrait was printed by a narrow white border.

Location

Here we have an unidentified American family. There is no indication when the portrait was taken or where. The studio depicts the children in a rural setting. The children, however look like city kids to us. American was rapidly urbanizing in the 1880s. Many city residents grew up on the farm. Some had nostalgic feeling toward the country. We notice quite a few portraits of children with rural settings. This was much less common for adult portraits.

Chronology

The fashions and hairstyles look to us to be be from the 1880s. We are not positive about this, but would guess the early 1880s.

The Children

There are four children and two dolls. It is not immediately apparent who is who in the portrait. All the children seem to be wearing dresses, but we think some are boys. The fact that there are two dolls suggest to us that there may be at least two girls. We would be interested n any insights reader might have.

Standing child

We are not at all sure about this child. Like the other children the child here wears a dress. Note the similarity to the dress of the child at the lower left. Both wear dresses with little jackets. Also notice the locket. This suggests a girl, although we have seen boys wearing them as well. But in this portrait as we know the child at the left is a girl, the locket does rather suggest that this child is a girl. The large white collar at the time seems more like a boy than a girl style. Also the hair style seems rather girlish to us. Boys might have long hair, but not cut like this. We think this child is a girl, but we are not at all sure.

Left child

Here we are confident that the child is a girl. Notice the necklasses. The obvious clue is the bonnet. Boys might wear dresses, but erating bonnets was very rare except for infants. The hair style, brushed back is a girlish style. Also the body language, leaning against her brother also suggests a girl. Notice the stripped stockings. This is not a gender indicator, but an interesting period style.

Middle child

This child looks yo us like a boy. He seems a bit old to still be wearing a dress though, I'd say about 9-10 years old. hat was beyond the age when boys were normally breeched in the 1880s, but at the time mothers did delay the age of breeching and we have note a few boys this age still wearing dresses. Also note the ringlet curls. Many boys wore ringlets in the 1880s. Again most boys by this age had their hair cut, but not all. A factor here is that if this child was a girl, we think that the sisters might have had curls also. We note that generally families when the boys had ringlets, did the hair of the girls differently. Also notice how different his hat is to his sister's hat. It seems rather fancy for a biy, but is not a bonnet. Thus all tokd, this child seems to be a boy, although we are not absolutelt possitive.

Right child

This child is rather obscured. The doll rather suggests a girl, although wehave seen boys with dolls. The hair seems girlish to us. The face could be aboy, but the rather short sleeve and the braclet seem to indicate that the child is a grl.

Props

We only note two props, the two dolls. They seem to be rather large dolls. We suspect that both were studio props rather than the childrens' own toys.

The Portrait

It is also a colorized portrait, very professionally done. The color was added by hand. We do not note vey many colorized portraits and the ones we have found are not nearly as professinally done as this one. It is an unusual size, 7 3/8" x 9 3/4". It is not a cabinent card, but rather a larger size presumably especially made for framing and a wall hanging. The portrait was printed by a narrow white border.

Created: 4:58 AM 12/7/2005
Last updated: 4:58 AM 12/7/2005