English Dresses: Unidentified Children--Image 4 Yorkshire
Figure 1.-- This English studio portarait shows an unidentified, but prosperous looking family with mother and father and what looks like four girls, about 4-16 years of age. Mother and the two of the giels wear dresses with all kinds of flounces. We wonder about the youngest child. Notice that unlike the older children, this child does not have a center hair part. And notice the attention given to these center parts--they are ruler perfect. And notice how the younger child has a very different dress.
This English studio portarait shows an unidentified, butr prosperous looking family with mother and father and what looks like four girls, about 4-16 years of age. Mother and the two of the giels wear dresses with all kinds of flounces. We wonder about the youngest child. Notice that unlike the older children, this child does not have a center hair part. And notice the attention given to these center parts--they are ruler perfect, straight down the middle. And notice how the younger child has a very different dress. Now we have no way of knowing. The child cetainly looks to our modern eye like a girl. It is important to note that a center hair part as the most relaible gender indicator in these old photiographs. We suspect that this child may be a boy. And here it is important to recall that boys this age at the time often wore dresses and/or had long hair. A British reader, interestungly from Yoirshire adds, "I looked at this picture a few times before how the composition of the picture suggests gender grouping. All the girls are around mother. Dad and the young child are together. The male bond suggests the child is a boy. Just a feeling I picked up from looking at the photograph.
The portrait is undated, but the rounded corners of the CDV and studio setting suggest the early-1870s. The studio was photographer Frank Dore in Bradford and Huddersfield in Yorkshire (northern England).
