*** dresses : national styles -- United States of America colors white








American Dresses: Colors--White

famoly white dresses
Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows four little children beside a period baby carriage. The baby may be a girl, but the other children look like boys. The boys looks to us like brothers given their ages and the fact they look alike. We would guess they were about 6 months-5 years of age. The laws of biology mean they have to be very close to the limit. We are guessing the two oldest boys are twins. The boys all seem to be wearing matching or similar white dresses. This makes for a charming scene as well as simplifying washing day for mother. We are unsure about the date. The cabinet card is plain with no studio logos, this makes it harder to date. We would guess the 1880s, but we are not at all sure. The sme white dresses like the boys were wearing were worn throughout the late-19th century.

White dresses, unlike other colors, are relatively easy to identify in the photographic record. Some light shades may look like white, but they have to be very light indeed not to show up a little different than white. And we see many children, both boys and girls, wearing white dresses. This was especually common for younger children. A good example is 3-year old California boy, Carlton Gardner, we think in the 1880s. There were both fashion and practical matters that made white so popular. White was appeling for little children because it emphasizes their innosence, giving them the appearance of little angels. There was also the practicality. Unlike colored dresses, white does not fade even after repeated washings--something necessary with younger children. Modern reaaders do not fully appreaciate the laundry problem. In an era before machines and modern detergents, it was a major, labor intensive undertaking. A full day had to be put aside for washing and it took the entire day of boiling water, scrubbing rinsing, and hanging out on the line. And in addition to all the hard work, you can imagine what all of this did to the hands. The well-to-do had help during the work. Most mothers did not. There was a real advantage to white clothing. There were no laundry detergents available, but with white, you could pour in bleech--something you could not do with colored clothing. Thus we see large numbers of younger children wearing white, including boys wearing white dresses. White today is not seen as the ideal color for younger children as it shows up dirt. But that is because modern mothers have washing machines and effective laundry detergents. There was also a seasonal factor at play. White and other light colors are also popular for spring and summer wear. Notably the cabinet card here is a summer portrait, presumably from an itinerate phitographer (figure 1).

Identification

White dresses, unlike other colors, are relatively easy to identify in the photographic record. Some light shades may look like white, but they have to be very light indeed not to show up a little different than white.

Prevalence

We we see many children, both boys and girls, wearing white dresses. This was especually common for younger children. We have archived substantial numbers of photographs of American boys wearing white dresses on HBC. A good example is 3-year old California boy, Carlton Gardner, we think in the 1880s. Sometimes we see the whole family in white dresses, such as the children here (figure 1). This seems especilly common with Empitr dresses in the early-10tg cenyury, although bwe have only a few imges to work with. We also see a lot of white dresses around the turn-of-the 20th century. And here we hve substabtial photograohic record to subsbabtiteour assessment.

Reasons

There were both fashion and practical matters that made white so popular. White was appeling for little children because it emphasizes their innosence, giving them the appearance of little angels. There was also the practicality. Unlike colored dresses, white does not fade even after repeated washings--something necessary with younger children. Modern reaaders do not fully appreaciate the laundry problem. In an era before machines and modern detergents, it was a major, labor intensive undertaking. A full day had to be put aside for washing and it took the entire day of boiling water, scrubbing rinsing, and hanging out on the line. And in addition to all the hard work, you can imagine what all of this did to the hands. The well-to-do had help during the work. Most mothers did not. There was a real advantage to white clothing. There were no laundry detergents available, but with white, you could pour in bleech--something you could not do with colored clothing. Thus we see large numbers of younger children wearing white, including boys wearing white dresses. White today is not seen as the ideal color for younger children as it shows up dirt. But that is because modern mothers have washing machines and effective laundry detergents. There was also a seasonal factor at play. White and other light colors are also popular for spring and summer wear. Notably the cabinet card here is a summer portrait, presumably from an itinerate phitographer (figure 1).

Types

We see boys wearing both plain and fancy white dresses. Many of the portraits of boys wearing white dresses in the 19th century show them wearing very plain white dresses. The plin dresses seem the most common in the photogrphic record, despite te fact it is mostly studio portraits in which the boys are dressed up in their best outfits. These may have been the dresses they wore for every day, but we are noit entirly sure about that. Most would have had a dress they wore for best. This is difficult to assess, because 19th century photography was largely studio portrait in which mother dressed up the kids in their best clothes. Some avid amateur photographers took snapshots, but it was both complicated and expensive. So the number of snapshots are a tiny fraction of the 19th century photographic record, and primarily found in the 1890s. This not change until the Kodak Brownie appeared (1900). By this time the convention of younger boys wearing dresses was declining. So the family snap shots when they do appear in large numbers during the 1900s show few boys wearing dresses, both white and colored. In addition to the many plain white dresses we see, we also see ancy cwhite dresses, with elaborate lace and other fancy frim. Thy are not nearly as common, but we have found quite a number of examples.

Age

We have not yet been able to assess age conventions associated with white dresses.

Chronology

We see some white dresses in the early-19th century, often done in the Empire styles. Our number of images, however, is very limited. We are less sure about mid-century. We do not see many white dresses in the early photographic record, mening Dags and Ambros (1840s-50s). Most of the white dresses we have found come from the very substantial albumen (CDVs and cabinet cards) studio record from the late-19th century. After the turn-of-the 20th century, we see far fewer boy wearing dresses, especialy after the 1900s. Maby of thie boys we have foinf=d wearing dresses in the new century were wearing white dresses.







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Created: 8:28 PM 3/5/2015
Last updated: 7:50 AM 5/12/2022