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The unidentified boys in this cabinet card portrait were from Jubilee, Iowa. The card is undated, but looks like the 1880s. The age of the boys is not specified, but the younger boy looks to be about 1 year old. The other two boys look to be about 3-4 years old.The plain dresses look like every day wear, probably sewn by mother. Note that this is not a studio portrait, but taken by an itinerant photographer. This weould suggest the family is of modest income abd that the boys probably werre not as dressed up as they might bave been for a formal studio portrait in town. A reader writes, "What about the clothing styles suggest that they are boys and not girls with
short haircuts? Not that I am doubting that they are boys, I just cannot tell." \HBC doesn;t think anyrging from the dresses suggests the children or boys rather than girls, other than the dresses are very plain. But girls could very well have woen those dresses.
There is certainly no way to tell for sure the gender of young children when the names are not written on these old portraits. We base our assessment on the following:
1) The dresses are very plain.
2) With three children close in age, the odds are there would be a boy in there somewhere, but the children are all dressed alike.
3) The facial characteristics seem to us more like boys.
4) It is true that girls could have short hair, but the way the hair is cut and combed, seems rather boyish to us.
HBC welcomes reader insights on this subject.
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