Figure 1.--Here ewe have a portrait of the Coras children. They seem to be an already well assimilated Italian-American family. The children look to be about 5-16 years old. The boy with the Fauntleroy blouse with a lrge ruffled collar and floppy bow. He looks to be about 10 years old. His older brother wears a detachable collar and small bowtie. It is difficult to make out what the girls are wearing, but the older girl is a teenagers and has a large white hair bow. Girls did not wear collar bows like the boys. Based on the clothing and cabinet card mount, we would guess the portrait was taken in the early-1900s decades. The photograoher was the Risem's studio in Superior Wisconsin.

Floppy bows were very common for primary-school age boys. And this included 10-year bolds. It was still very common at age 10 years to boys wear floppy during the Fauntleroy era. Perhaps not the largest size bows, but we still see 10 year olds wearing large floppy bows. This varied from family to family, but the larger bows were most prevalent for voys up to aboyt 10 years. This is an age in which boys begin to become increasingly aware of the world around them. Children his age are 5th graders, the next to last year in 6-year elementary (primary) schools. After about age 10 years we begin to see fewer boys wearing these bows, but they were still quite common at 10 years when dressing up. We have found countless examples if this in the photographic record which by the 1890s is extensive. Herec we see the Coros family in Wisconsin. The younger boy looks to be about 10 yers old. He wears a Fauntlrroy blouse and colored floppy bow (figure 1). We alao see Percy Jackman wearing a floppy bow at age 10 in 1899.

Created: 9:30 AM 2/18/2022
Last updated: 9:30 AM 2/18/2022