Figure 1.--This gold trimmed German cabinet card pictures three children, presumably siblings, all wearing very similar white summer frocks with waist bands, except for the bby. . Notice that the two older children wear black long stockings, even with white frocks. They look to be about 1-7 years of age. The portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken in the early-1890s. (There is a exhibition award on the back dated 1887). Thus the portrait could not have been taken before 1887. What we are unsure about his gender. There is no way to know about the baby. We suspect the child at the right is a girl because of the doll. Te childin the center we are unsure about. His face looks rather boyish, but there is no way to be sure. He is at the upper end of the age range for German boys wearing dresses. The studio was a high photographer whose clentelle include the Kaiser nd kings. Studio: Hof Photograph Oscar Strensch, Wittenberg!

Dresses were the primary garment worn by girls and women. Following a long tradition, younger boys also wore dresses and other skirted garments. We have not yet developed information on the age trends. This continued to be the case in the 19th century. We do not yet know if this differed from other countries. We think that convention mau have been weare in Germany than many other European countries, but we can not yet substantiate this. We note that this this as in other countries began to decline in the late-19th century. We still see this in the early-20th century before World War I, but to a lesser extent and only very young boys. The only important exception was tunics which were very popular for younger boys. After the War, skirted garments for boys rapidly disappeared. Ending a centuries-long convention of younger boys wearing skirted garments.

Created: 1:38 AM 1/12/2016
Last updated: 1:38 AM 1/12/2016