Figure 1.-This cabinet card portrait shows two unidentified Oregon siblings. They look to be about 5-8 years old. The girl wears alight-colored dress with a kind of lacy pinafore overlay. Notice the jump rope. This is a toy we do not often see as a studio prop. The boy wears a collared collar-butoning suit with Norfolk styling and cloth covered buttons. We thinkn the portarit was takenn in the early-1880s. This was just before large collars and floppy bows became fasdhionanlr so we can clratly sse the jacket collar. Note his matching roundded crown hat layed on the floor.

There are two basic types of collar buttoning suits. These are jackers with and without collars. We see these jackets when the first appeared with and without collars. In the mid-19th century we see many examples without collars. All we usually see is a white blouse collar peaking up at the neck. As the century progressed we see more collar-bttoninf suits with attached coolars. The boy's jacket here, we think in the 1870s, is a good example. Unfortunately this becomes difficult to track in the 1880s because of the huge collars and floppy bows that became fashionable. hey cover up the collar area and we thuis hace no idea wether or not most of the jackets had collars. Most likely they did and were simply covered up, but we van not confirm this with the photographic record even thiough we have arived large numbers of images. Collars and bows declined in size after the turn-of-the 20th centurty, but by this time, the collar-buttoning jacket was declining in popularity.

Created: 5:57 PM 2/10/2023
Last updated: 5:57 PM 2/10/2023