Figure 1.--Here we have an unidentified child in a tinplate portrait wearing a locket. The child looks like a boy to us, but there is no way to be sure. Just as boys might have long hair, girls might hsave short hair.

We note boys wearing lockets in several of the images archived by HBC. Almost always the boys involved are youngr boys and not yet breeched. It is much more common for girls to wear lockets and other jewelry, but some yonger boys were given lockets as well. We have found quitte a number of boys who are wearing lockets. Some are identified. Others are clearly boys, but not unidentified by name. We have found even more photographic portraits in which the child may be a boy, but there is no way to tell for sure. Qnd because many of the boys are unbreeched, identifying gender is problematic. We do not yet have enough clearly boy portraits to be able to make definitive assessments on issues such as age and social class. Our preliminary assessment is that Lockets seem to be most worm by unbreeched pre-school boys from comfortable circumstances.

Unidentified Child (1850s)

Here we see a wonderful American Daguerreotype. It is undated and unidentified. We wouild guess that it was taken in the early 1860s, but that is only a rough approximation. We are also unsure about the child's gender. On images like this are general approach is to assume that it is a girl unless some aspect of the portrait suggests that it is a boy. Thus we would tend to assume that the child here is a girl, although we are not at all sure about that. Hopefully HBC readers will be able to offer some insights. Daguerreotype

Unidentified Boy (1870s)

HBC has found this a difficult image to assess. It is unfortunate that so many old photographs have no information associated with them. this leaves us to only guess about the date and gender involved. This child looks to be about 6 or7 yeats old. Many boys this age would have been breached at this age, but in the 1870s a noy wearing skirted garments at this age was not all tht unusual. The child's outfit looks much like a boys' kilt suit. This was a very common outfit for a boy. The outfit looks much more like a kilt suit than a dress. The kilt-skirt, however, is done somewhat differently than most of the kilt suits we have noted. Those diagonal cross pieces aresomewhat unusual, but we are unsur if thereare any gender connotations involved. This may be because many of the images we have seen are from the 1880s and this looks more like the 1870s. We do not yet have detailed information on 1870s girls clothes, but we have begun to collect some information. There are no props, but there are ome indicators that the child may be a girl. Boys at the time sometimes had ringlet curls, but the center parts with ringlets were less common for boys. This is an unusual ringlet cut. At first glance the child has short hair, but there are quite long ringlets on the child's shoulders. The locket was also less common for a boy. We have noted them on younger boys, but are less common but not unknown on boys this age.

Unidentified Family (1880s)

Here we have an unidentified American family. There is no indication when the portrait was taken or where. The fashions and hairstyles look to us to be be from the 1880s. The studio depicts the children in a rural setting. The children, however look like city kids to us. There are four children and two dolls. It is not immediately apparent who is who in the portrait. All the children seem to be wearing dresses, but we think some are boys. It is also a colorized portrait, very professionally done. The color was added by hand. It is an unusual size, 7 3/8" x 9 3/4". It is not a cabinent card, but rather a larger size presumably especially made for framing and a wall hanging. The portrait was printed by a narrow white border.

Joseph C. Breckinridge Jr. (The 1870s)

The Brechinridge family is one of the most illustrious in Kentucky. Its members include John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-75) who was James Bucanan's Vice President. He ran unsuccesfully for President in 1860 and in fact his southern campaign split the national Democratic Party and guaranteed Lincoln's election. After his defeat by Lincoln joined the Confederacy and served in many of the major battles of the Civil War from Shiloh to the Shenandoah Canpaign and Cold Harbor. Joseph was born in 1872. He was photographed in July 1876 at the age of 4 years, 4 months old.

Unidentified Boy (about 1890)

Our information on pinafores in the United States is very limited. We have no personal accounts about American boys wearing pinafores yet. Available photographic images show that some boys did wear them in the late 19th century. I'm less sure about the early 19th century. We do not believe it was very common after the tirn of the 20th century. We believe that this would primarily be boys from wealthy northeastern families. Presumably this would have been a garment worn at home to prevent their clothes from getting soiled. Most children were dressed up for photographic portraits. As a result ythe proportion of boys photographed in pinafores is not a good indicator of the number that avtually wore pinafores. It is not entirely clear to us why a mother would have had her son photographed in a pinafore rather than his best clothes. We note boys wearing pinafores both before and after breeching, but believe it was more common before breeching. We are not sure if there were differences between the pinafores worn by boys and girls. We do not have enough impages of pinafores to know much about the colors or styles.

Unidentified Child (The 1890s)

HBC has found this a difficult image to assess. The child in the Fauntleroy suit is definitely a boy. The older child in the sailor suit is more difficult to assess. The portrait was probably taken in the 1890s. Our assessment is that the older child is probably a girl, although there are some reasons to believe that the child may be a boy.

Unidentified Boy (The 1890s)

We notice a wide range of collars worn with dresses. Some dresses did not have collars while others had very large, fancy ones. We note both small inconspicuous coolars and large fancy ones. They were done in many different shapes. Here there were similarities with collars on shirts and blouses.n Many collars were done in the same color and material as the dress. Others contrasted with the dress. The collars varied greatly in size and style. Most dresses had colars that were a part of the dress. There were also pin-on and other detachable collars. A popular type of pin-on collar was the lace collar. We also see Eton collars. One popular style was lace collars. Both boys an girls wore dresses with lace collars. We note an unidentfied boy wearing a ruffled collar with his dress in the 1850s. We notice Willie Blatt with a very small ruffled collar during the 1870s. These cpllars, however, do not seem to be part pf the dresses, but eather on a garment work under the dress.

James Parvin Martin (about 1895)

A HBC reader has submitted two fascinating portraits of James Martin. We do not know a great deal about James, except that he was was 5 years old when the portraits were taken and that he had a particularly adoring mother, even by 19th century standards. We assume that the portraits commemorate the day he was breeched as they were taken before and after--presumably under the watchful direction of his teary-eyed mother. As was often the case, breeching did not mean James' curls were cut, this would be done when he was older. His mother did, however, remove his hair bow--perhaps for ever. Before breeching he wears a simple white summer frock or shift and after breeching he wears a very boyish sailor suit. HBC dates the portrait to the mid-1890s, but can not be more specific.

Unidentified Boy (about 1905)

A smock is generally defined as a loose over-garment, especially one worn to protect the clothing worn under the smock. They are especially associated with protecting children's clothing at school and at play and adult's clothing at work. The smocks worn by European farm laborers in the 19th century were sometimes referred to as a smock frock. Smocks are sometimes difficult to differentiate from two related garments, dresses and pinafores. We have begun to collect the various foreign language terms for smocks. In some countries there are multiple terms.

Unidentified Boy (about 1905-10)

HBC believes that the tunic has been a primarily boys' garment, although our information has been admittedly limited. Cerainly tunics in the 19th century, as far as we can tell, were boys' garments. We have few written sources to substantiate this. Based on the images we have seen, however, the tunic certainly seems to be a boys' garment. We are less sure, however, about the 20th century. Some images suggest that in the early 1900s that tunics were also worn by girls, at least in America. We are not sure, however, how common this was and we hope HBC will be able to add further insights on this matter.
Unidentified Boy (about 1910)

This 4 year old American boy wears a striped summer sailor tunic. The photograph was probably taken about 1910. He wears long ringlet curls and an unusually large hair boy for a boy. Ringlet curls for boys were at the time declining in popularity.

Created: 12:11 AM 9/8/2009
Last updated: 12:11 AM 9/8/2009