Figure 1.--This cabinent card shows a brother and sister were from Newark, Ohio. The photographer was from Ries. The children look to be about 6-11 years old, although this is difficult to tell with any precesion. They are not identified, but the older child is almost cerainly a boy. Not only does he look like a boy, but his hair style os not one a girl would have worn. We see many portraits of girls with short hair, but not styled like that. Note his little sister's long hair. We note many portaits of brothers and sisters wearing dresses. What is realrtively rare is annolder boy wearing the same dress as his little sister. Their dresses are identical, although for some reason mother has only added a lace collar to the boy's dress. The portait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1880s. A reader writes, "Yes, I think you are correct. He surely must be a boy even though he is older than most boys we see wearing dresses. Just note his face. He doesn't look that happy about it."

One factor associated with boy and girl siblings wearing dresses is age. Most commonly we see a younger boy and older girl wearing dresses. This is probably because an older boy might presumbluy protest the idea of wearing the same outfit as hos little sister. This was especially the case if the boy was of schiil age. Parents of course had much more say as to how children dressed in the 19th century. Even so boys of school age were not without their opinions and might resist this effort of mother to dress the children alike. Another factors was the mathematical mechanics of ageing. A little boy easly might be dressed like his older sister for 4-5 years. The sister would probably not complain. On the other hand, an older broher could only be dressed like his little sister for 2-3 years before reaching the normal breeching age, Thus for older brothers the age range window in whih this could be done was very limited. There was, however, no fixed age foir breeching boys. The photographic record cleaerly shows that some mothers continued the practice past school entry age (about age 6 years), in some ibstances well past that age. In such instances a boy might be dressed like his little sister for several years.

Created: 7:22 PM 10/10/2008
Last updated: 5:27 AM 10/13/2008