Figure 1.-- Assessing fashion trends is complicated because so many old photographs are undated. Here we have a dated image. And notice the boy is wearing knickers and not knee pants. It is 1907-08 when we see a sudden switch from knee pants to knickers. And the fact that he is on a boating excursion suggests to us that he comes from a family in confortable circumstances with a fashion concious mother. A reader comments, "If you notice the younger child (who I suspect is a boy) because he is not wearing a hair bow. He seems to be wearing a white tunic suit or dress and bloomer styled short pants. What are your thoughts? Also I would guess the older boy is about 14 or so."

Assessing fashion trends is complicated because so many old photographs are undated. Here we have a dated image. And notice the boy is wearing knickers and not knee pants. It is 1907-08 when we see a sudden switch from knee pants to knickers. And the fact that he is on a boating excursion suggests to us that he comes from a family in confortable circumstances with a fashion concious mother. A reader comments, "If you notice the younger child (who I suspect is a boy) because he is not wearing a hair bow. He seems to be wearing a white tunic suit or dress and bloomer styled short pants. What are your thoughts? Also I would guess the older boy is about 14 or so." The image and our reader's comments bring up several interesting topics.

The Boat

The boar is not a wealthy's persons yacht. It is some kind of tourist attraction. All we know about it is the two pennants we see on the bow. We are not sure about the top pennent, but wonder if it might be head of a bird, perhaps suignifying a birding expedition. We also see a "N" pennant on the bow. We have no idea where they are, but they are in marshland in some kind of estuary. We would guess in the north because of the way everyone but the older boy is dressed. Marshland is of course a good place to go birding.

Knickers

Assessing fashion trends is complicated because so many old photographs are undated. Here we have a dated image. And notice the boy is wearing knickers and not knee pants. It is 1907-08 when we see a sudden switch from knee pants to knickers. And the fact that he is on a boating excursion suggests to us that he comes from a family in confortable circumstances with a fashion concious mother.

The Children

Only the two children at the bow are ckearly shown. There is another child at the extreme left, but not a very clear view. A reader comments, "If you notice the younger child (who I suspect is a boy) because he is not wearing a hair bow. He seems to be wearing a white tunic suit or dress and bloomer styled short pants. What are your thoughts? Also I would guess the older boy is about 14 or so." There is no identifiable information about the children except on what looks likea postcard back snapshot except what we think is the name written on the front, "Clifton C." We do not know if Clifton is the younger or older child.

The older boy

The older boy wears what looks like a nautical cap, a white shirt, knickers, nd long stickings. One might guess that he was part of the crew as he is helping the younger child push off. Given the way bhe is dressed, however, he looks more like one of the tourists, but we are unsure. I would not say he is 15 years old, but would guess someting like 12 or 13, possibly 14 years old.

The younger child

We at first thought the younger child was a girl, but we think our reader is correct, he is probnly a boy, probanly Clifton. We would guess he is about 5 years old. He has Dutch boy bangs aad wears a sweater over what looks like a tunic suit. Tunics were enormously popular for younger boys in the 1900s and 1910s. There was a social class factor. Middle-class boys commonly wore them, the type of families that could afford vacations. They were less common among working-class families. The sweater is a good indication that it was a little chilly and probably somewhere in the north. We do not commonly see boys wearing sweaters over their tunic suit. This is one of the few such examoples we have noted. One reason we thibnk the child is a boy is that girls did not normally wear bloomer knickers thathuhng so far below dress hems. This was more common for boys wearing tunic suit. Our reader is correct, hair bows were becoming very poular for girls at the time, reaching their opeak in the 1910s.

Created: 10:35 AM 10/10/2018
Last updated: 12:47 AM 10/11/2018