Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows a grandfather with either his grandson or granddaughter, we are nit sure which. The child's short hair certainly looks like a boy, burt many girls had short hair. The child's outfit is a little ambiguous, but the shirt cuffs suggest a girl to us, although we think the child's confident expression is rather boyish. The studio was Swanson of Irvine. As no state is specified, it was probably the Irvine in Ayrshire.

Hair styling is of course an important fashion statement. And here have been notable gender destinctions over time. Our HBC website relies heavily on the photographic record. This presents a range of problems as many availble photographs are not identified, thus we often have to guess about gender. Long hair of course usually means that the child is a girl and short hair a boy. This is, however, not always the case. Many youngwr boys had long hair and quite a number of girls short hair. A sometimes more reliable inducator is a center part, but this also is not infalible because there were times when center parts were popular for boys. As a result we can usually establish gender with a fair degree of accuracy as clthing usually helps, but there are portaits that we find difficult to identify.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
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[Return to the Main Scottish boys clothing page]
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[Kilt suits] [Scottish kilts] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance] [Pipeband]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing] [Greek kilts]

Created: 7:16 AM 6/5/2014
Last updated: 7:16 AM 6/5/2014