Figure 1.--These children were photographed in Salem, C (Connecticut) about 1905. The little boy has a white hairbow and his sister a plaid hairbow. We have no idea on what basis this selection was made. Note that both children have identical ringlet hair styles. The boy's ringlets are shorter, perhaps because he was younger and his hair ws not a long as his sister's hair. Image courtesy of the RG collection.

This is an unidentified image. All we know for sure is that these children, surely brothers and sisters, were photographed in Salem, C (Connecticut). The portrait was probably taken about 1905. The boy wears a light-colored sailor suit done in a muted plaid. His older sister wears a plaid pinafore over a long-sleeved dress. Both children wear identical ringle curls. The little boy has a white hairbow and his sister a plaid hairbow. We have no idea on what basis this selection was made. Note that both children have identical ringlet hair styles. The boy's ringlets are shorter, perhaps because he was younger and his hair ws not a long as his sister's hair.

Children

This is an unidentified image. We do not know who the children are. Surely given the pose and the identical hair stle, these children must be brother and sister. The boy looks to be 4 years old. His sister looks to be about 9 years old. We know nothing about the fmily, but their hair style and clothing suggest an affluent family.

Chronology

The portrait was probably taken about 1905, perhaps as late as 1910. There is no way to be precise, but itis likely that the prortrit was taken within this time frame. The hair styles clothing and the oval photographic portrait format suggest this time frame.

Location

We do know tha these children are American. The photograph is labeled "Salem, C". We are not positive where this is, but surely it must be Connecticut, a northeastern state.

Clothing

The boy wears a light-colored sailor suit done in a muted plaid. His older sister wears a plaid pinafore over a long-sleeved dress.

Brother

The boy wears a light-colored sailor suit done in a muted plaid. All we see is his middy blouse. We are not sure about the color, other than it was a light color. Grey is a possibility. Note the very muted plaid. I am not sure about the material. The scarfe worn wih the outfit is done in the same material as the blouse. We are not sure what type of headwear was worn with it. We do not know about his trousers, but we beliece he was probably wearing bloomer knickers. The boy's middy blouse has a dickey with a destinctive star and chveron embroidered design.

Sister

We are not possitive, but the boy's older sister appears to be wearing a light-colored plaid pinafore over a long-sleeved dress. We can not see the dress, except the sleeves. This leads us to believe that the plaid outfit is a pinafore and not a dress.

Hair Styling

The little boy has a white hairbow and his sister a plaid hairbow. We have no idea on what basis this selection was made. Note that both children have identical ringlet hair styles. The boy's ringlets are shorter, perhaps because he was younger and his hair was not a long as his sister's hair.

Hair bows

The children both wear hairbows. The boy wears a white one and his sister a plaid one. Although not nearly as common as solid color hair bows, children also wore patterened hair bows. We have noted both plaid and polka-dot pattern hair bows. We are not sure why their mother chose the different hairbows for the children.

Ringlets

Both children wear identical ringle curls. We have noted that mothers who did their sons' hair in ringlet curls, often did their daughters' hair differently. This mother, however, did the hair of each children in exactly the same manner. We do not know how long the children had their hair done identicaly. Some mothers breached their boys before cutting his cirls. This mother appears to have breached her son before cutting his curls.

Gender Conventions

We have not noted boys commonly wearing the patterened hair bows. This may be because there are far fewer images of boys wearing hair bows than girls. We are not sure that this was attributable to gender connotations. We do note boys wearing patterened collar bows. This suggests to HBC that there was no gender conventions associated with patterened hair bows. A HBC reader comments, "I think you are correct in concluding that boys wore white or what appears white hair bows. I know of only a few instances of boys wearing patterns hair bows and in those cases it looked like a match to their collar bows." We note photographs of children with both solid and pattern hairbows, but are not sure on what basis a solid color hairbow was selected for the boy and a patterned hairbow for the girl (figure 1).

Selection Process

The clothing shown here seems fairly standard for the time. Wearing a pinafore for a formal portrait, however, was not common. What we wonder most about is the selection of the hairbows. It isnot clear to us why the girl wears a plaid hairbow abd the boy a white one. Perhaps she was matching the plaid pinafore with a plaid hairbow. White was a common choice for a boy's hair bow. We have no other image of these children so we are unsure what hairbows were chosen fvor other days and with other outfits.

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Created: January 12, 2003
Last updated: January 12, 2003