Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows twin brthers Arthur and Archie. They are identified as Fred's boys, but ith no blast names. Threy look to be about 2 years old. The boys wear identical dark dresses. As is oftren the cases with dresses, there are colored bands near the bottom hem. The dresses are very long. done about ankle length., We have no idea why they were done so long. The portrait is uundated, but the mount suggests the ortait was taken bout 1900-05. The studio was the Gaites Gallery, Macomb Illinois.

We see many portraits of boys wearing long dresses. We are not yet sure about girls of comparable ages. Both boys on the previous page in the 1880s had ankle length drsses. This depended on chronological fashions as well as the age of the child. The really long hems look rather unusual on young children. And we are not sure why this was so common. Long hems were worn for women both for modesty and fashion. Both of these factors would seem less important for very young children especially little boys. Long dresses were, however, very common, especially for the yonger boys. We are not sure why this was, but there are some possibilities. One is warmth. Another is to provide room for growth, For centuries this was the length worn. Notab;y we see yonger boys wearing dresses even though after the mid-19th century we see older boys and gurls wearing shorter dresses. Long dresses for infants seems understandable, but for toddlers just learming how to walk they seem a vey unpractical choice. We see these long dresses into the very early-20th century.

Created: 12:25 AM 8/5/2008
Last updated: 12:40 AM 6/15/2014