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The great majority of images on HBC are single shot portraits or snapshots. We have a few sections where we have a set of images on the same boy or family to see how fashions varied over time. What we do not have, however, is how the various garments intereacted with each other. Getting dressed is a relatively simple matter today. Earlier it was more complicated. Here in this section we also see how children got dressed. Children might wear button on clothing. There were also undewaists to hold up pants and stocking supporters to hold up long stockings. Underwear also used to be different and without central heating a more important part of a child's wardrobe. We thought it might be useful to take a family of three boys abd show all the steps in getting dressed. We will do this over time. The boys are Tom (age 4), Carl (age 7) , and John (age 12). We have chosen a middle-class family living in a northeastern city under comfortable circumstances. As a historical tool we also add images of how the boys might have dressed if they were not from a middle-class family. We will show how the boys dressed at different stages from underwear to overcoats. Our intention is to show this during decades to illustrate how the process of dressing and the fashions would have changed over time. We are using HBC as a source of information for the garments illustrated. This is a joint undertaking with Album1900.
HBC has assembled a huge collection of historical images on children, especially boys. We estimate that there are now more than 15,000 images archived on HBC. It is one of the largest collections of images on the internet. Most have never before been published and unavailable any where else on the internet. Many of the images on HBC are American images from the 19th and 20th century, especially the period after the development of photography. There are, however, images from more than 50 countries and images that streach back to ancient times. In addition to these photographs, paintings, and archeologucal artifacts, we have also collected information from catalogs and advertisements. This gives us the information to undersrand how children were dressed in great detail.
The great majority of images on HBC are single shot portraits or snapshots. We have a few sections where we have a set of images on the same boy or family to see how fashions varied over time. Most of these are located on the individual or family sections of HBC.
What we do not have, however, is how the various garments intereacted with each other. Getting dressed is a relatively simple matter today. Earlier it was more complicated. Here in this section we also see how children got dressed. Children might wear button on clothing. There were also undewaists to hold up pants and stocking supporters to hold up long stockings. Underwear also used to be different and without central heating a more important part of a child's wardrobe.
HBC's image archive is of course almost entirely of boys who are fully dressed. Many are formal studio portraits. Others are family snapshots. We also have many school photographs. As a result, we are not sure how all the different garments fitted together. This was especially the case in the late 19th and early 20th century when dressing was more complicated and the clothing more formal than the case today. We do have some photographs and illustrations of children dressing to give us some idea of the process. Many of these, but not all come from underwear adverisements. Many picture a variety of domestic scenes that provide valuable insights into the process of getting dressed.
We thought it might be useful to take a fictious family of three boys abd show all the steps in getting dressed. We will do this over time. The boys are Tom (age 4), Carl (age 7) , and John (age 12). Tom is still at home. Carl has begun primary (elementary) school and is in the second grade. John is in his last year of elementary school and almost ready to begin junior high school (since about the 1970s he might be in middle school). We have chosen a middle-class family living in a northeastern city under comfortable circumstances. As a historical tool we also add images of how the boys might have dressed if they were not from a middle-class family.
We will show how the three boys in our family dressed at different stages from underwear to overcoats. Our intention is to show this during decades to illustrate how the process of dressing and the fashions would have changed over time. We hope to show a series of decades. Thanks to our wirk on HBC we have an increasing detailed understanding of how boy dressed in each decade. We would be very interested, however, if readers spot any mistakes we have made or have any comments as to how boys might have dressed in each decade. As this is a time consuming undertaking, it will be some time before we are able to accomplish this. Our initinal plan is to run this from about the 1870s to modern times.
We are using HBC as a source of information for the garments illustrated. Of course for each decade there were many variable choices. We can only choose a few garments to illustrate. Here we will pick and choose. They are thus illustrative, but not definitive. We will create links on the various pages to the garments shown and to some of the pages showing the usage of these garments chronologically.
This is a joint undertaking with Album1900. The charming illustrations in this section are the work of a German librarian, Birte Koch. Birte is not only a librarian and illustrator, she is also the web master of Album1900. This is a wonderful website which focuses on German family life in the 19th and 20 centuries. Her archive of images shared with us in her site provide a fascinating insight into German family life over time.
HBC
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Album1900
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