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We have begun to archive Canadian family images during the 1900s. And have found several interesting family portraits. There were of course big differences between urban and rural families, although when dresed up or styudio portaits, these diferences are not so apparent. While we have found some period images, do not yet have enough to form any real assessments at this time.
This is a wonderful image of a Canadian family at the turn of the 20th century, although it is a tintype and thus not very clear. There is no accompanying information with the image. There are three adults, presumably mother and father. We are unsure who the third woman is, probably an aunt. The adults are all dressed up. I am not sure what the family social They are with two children, boys in indebntical white sailor suits with bouced knickers. They wear big tan-like sailor headwear which probably had tassles. They wear black long stockings with their white sailor suits. I'm unsure how old the boys are. I would guess about 5 and 8 years old. The boys almost surely are brothers. The family looks to be on some kind of outing.
This photograph was taken about 1900 in Ontario and shows a family group outside a log cabin home. Unfortunately we have no details about the family other than than that they were from Ontario and what can be deduced from the photograph, The family is pictured right outside the home and some interesting detailks can be seen in the cabin construction. We are guessing that the portrait was taken by a intenerate photographer. Mother has carefully prepared the children for the portrait. The boys have carefully combed hair with a center part. They are wearing their best blouses. One boy has a polkadot blouse with a large collar. The other boy has a sailor blouse. One girl has a sailor dress and the older girl has a white dress. All the children are barefoot. The clothing to us looks to be identical from what one would expect from an American Mid-western farm family.
This cabinet card portrait shows the Reed family from Shelburne, Ontario. There are two childen about 3-5 years old. The boy wears a clasic Fauntleroy suit. The two young children are a little surprising as we do not see a young couple. We see five adults. The men presumably are father and grandfather. The three women are likely grandmother, mother, and an aunt, perhaps an unmarried aunts. The portrait is undated. It is clearly taken at the turn of the century (1895-1905), however refining it further is complicated. The big puff sleeves of the women look to us about 1895, a perhaps a few years later. The mount, however, is one of the new styles which generally date after the turn of the century. There are interesting aspect to this portrait. One is the Union Jack flag. Canada at the time was a Doninion well on its way to becoming self governing. Canadian nationalism was, hoever, was not yet well established. Many English speaking Canadian families still looked on Britain as the mother country. Except for the flag, you could not tell that this was not an American family. The sleigh of course suggests a northerly location.
Families could still be quite large at the turn of the century. This was especially true for French Catholic families. We note families with more than 10 children and this was not all that unusuaal. One available image shows that sailor suits and dresses were quite popular for the younger children (figure 1). Older boys wore knicker suits. Unfortunately the image is not clear enough to make out clothing details. Notice how everyone has a hat. Of course sailor hats are most common for the younger children.
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