|
Although there are realtively few formal portraits of boys with dolls, they do exist. We have noted them in several countries, including America, England, France, Germany, and most other European countries. We notice images of boys playing with dolls both before and after they were breached. We have not yet noticed any particular national trends associated with these images as to whether dolls were more common in certain countries than other countries. At this time, all we can say is that the practice looks very widespread throught Europe. It was perhaps not as common in America, but that is only an initial assessment.
We don't have much informatin on how 19th century children played. There are some photoigraphs which provide us with clues. Among those photographs we note play with dolls. We do not know how common this was. But doll collectors will tell you that boys dolls are relativey rare. This probably reflects the fact that fewer boys played will dolls. Not do we know if it was looked down on at the time. The raising of young children in the 19th century was generally seen as the mother's responsibilities. One might think that boy wearing dresses and curls might also play cames like girls without raising any eyebrows. Here there are, however, differences between boys and girls. Boys at a very young age tend to prefer rougher more active games than girls. This is clearly observeable in nursery schools. We tend to think that boys with sisters were most likely to play with dolls. The situation tended to shift in the 20th century. Parents especially fathers tended to be comcerned if boys played with dolls or engaged in other girlish activities. This even included very young boys. Teddies were acceptable, but dolls were another question. After World War II a more acceptable alernative was intoduced--the GI Joe action figure.
This English boy seen here was photographed in Halifax or Blackpool (the photographer had two studios) probably in the 1880s (figure 1). Notice how he is holding his doll. This boy has not been breaches and still wears dresses. He looks to be about 6 years old. Many boys were also photographed with dolls after having been breached.
We do not have any 19th century images of French children playing with dolls. However, are archive of French 19th century photographs in general is very limited. As a result tghis is no indication that French boys did not play with dolls. There are quite a few available early 20th century images showing boys with dolls. We have noted quite a number of American boys playing with dolls in old photographs. The same appears to have been the case in France. A French reader writes, "Many European boys in the 19th century had a cloth dolly, even boys without sisters. This was true in France and Germany and probably others European countries as well.
HBC is somewhat surprised that several of the available images of boys playing with dolls are German images. We are not sure that this is a reflection that doll playing was more common for boys in Germany. The number of images availavle is very small. Thus we do not believe thisrepresents a valid sampling of European images. We in fact do not have large numbers of French and Italian images. As in other countries, there are images of German boys both before and after breaching, playing with dolls.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main boy doll page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Photography]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
