Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait was escribed, "Esther Jackman, Jan. 1st 1881." We believe Esther is a girl's name. Some uses varied in the 19th century, but as far as we know this was always a girl's name. Apparentlyv a small number of boys were also named Esther. Names at the time were often Biblical. We suspect that the name was chosen to honor a relkative.

This cabinet card portrait was escribed, "Esther Jackman, Jan. 1st 1881." We believe Esther is a girl's name. Some uses varied in the 19th century, but as far as we know this was always a girl's name. Apparentlyv a small number of boys were also named Esther. Names at the time were often Biblical. We suspect that the name was chosen to honor a rekative. A HBC reader has researched the name and finds it was used as a boy's name, although this was not very common. Our reader tells us, "The statistics regarding Esther as a boy's name are confusing. It's popularity as a boy's name was #512 out of 1000 in 1895, yet only a total of 97 boys were recorded as being given that name. It was in the top 1000 boys' names from 1890 - 1911. In contrast Esther as a girls name reached #27 in 1896 and a total of 238,279 girls were given this name in the 127 years it was in the top 1000." Another possibility is that it was the boy's mother who ordered the portrait, but we don't think the date would be written like that. He looks go be about 10-years old. The boy wears a collar-buttoning velvet jacket with a double breasted look (two button rows). A large white collar and floppy bow show the styles that would become nuch larger later in the decade. No touch of Fauntleroy frills yet. Note the longer hair at vthe back. The photographer was C.M. Bell, Washington, D.C.

Created: 1:12 AM 8/24/2011
Last updated: 2:30 AM 8/25/2011