Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows two unidentified girls, presumably sisters, wearing plaid dressess. Plaid was a popular pattern for both boys and girls. The girls look to be about 7-13 years old. The portrait is undated but the mount and dress style definitely date it to the 1890s. The hem length of the older'girls dress is medium length (mid-calf). The younger girl is sitting down, but we suspet the hemline is about the same. The younger girl has ringlet curls. At the time boys also had ringlet curls. If a boy had his hair done in ringlets than in most families, sisters did not have their hair sone in ringlets. But id there were no young brothers, girls ase see here might have their hair done in ringlets. The studio is Lupton in Lebanon, Illinois.

While our knowledge of the 18th century is limited to a relatively small number afartistic rederings. This changes in the mid-19th century with the invention of photography (1839). All of a sudden we see ubstantial numbrs of images and this increased exponebtially the albumen process, CDVs and cabinet cards (1860s). This allows us to follow fashion developments in detail never before popular. We know much more anout the 19th century, at least the second half with the advent of photograpjhy. Hem lines in the 19th century were fairly stable. Women wore long dresses throughout the 19th century. Girls hem lines were more varied. We notice long dresses done in the Empire style during the early-19th century, but shorter drsses worn with pantalettes by mid-century. The actual length of girls dresses varies with age. The basic length seems to have settled in at mid-calf after mid-century. Younger girls might have even shorter hems commonly worn with pantalettes, but this may have been more common in Europe han America. . The CDV here from the 1870s is a good example (figure 1). This is just a preliminary asessment which needs to be confirmed. We assume that boys wearing dresses and kilted outfits followed the same conventions, but this needs to be confirmed. We have seen many younger boys with very longer hem lines. This may be mother buying outfits that will last awhile, but ankle-length for very young boys seems excessive. We suspect that something else was at play here. This is an interesting topic because it may provide one more tool to help us date undated images.

Created: 2:22 PM 8/7/2017
Last updated: 2:22 PM 8/7/2017