Figure 1.-Here we see an early British school portrait. It is an undated CDV, but we would guess was taken in he late-1860s. Before the advent of the CDV, the arly photograohic systems were one shot systems. Without negatives, copies could not be made. And wthout the ability tio make copies, school photograohy was not possible. School photigraphy requires the abikity to make cooies that coukd be sold gto the children/parenmts.

We have just begun to compile English school decade trends for the mid-19th century. A problem here as that school photogrphy was not fesible with early photographic types. We have individul portrits like the portraiton the previous page, but no group images until the CDV appeared (1860s). There are some painted portraits. We note Nathanelle and Johnnie Boyd in 1848. They wear short brown jackes with open-collared shirts and white long trousers. We believe this is their school uniforms. Now while portraits of individual boys in their school uniforms were possible. School classes or other groupings could not very well be taken. First, for a rnge of issues, the industry did niot expabd rpidly. We note far fewer British images (1840s-50s) than in America. Second, these early photogrphic types (Dags abd Ambros) were taken in the studio. And studios were designed for individuals or small, modtkly famiky groops, not school classes or other large groups. Third and most importantly, only one image resulted from a Dag or Ambro shoot. So the students and their parents could not purchase copies. And what use is a class portrait if the members of the class czan not get copies. This only came with the introduction of the Albumen process which created negatives. This meantthat wiyh ngstives, multyiple cpoies couild be made. The result was CDVs and and cabinet cards. It took some gtime vfor school portraits to become an established tradition. e see some school portasits in the 1860s, but not many. Not only did it take time for a new tradition to be estzblished, byt the CDV was very small nd thus group photogrphs meant that individuals pictured were tiny.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Return to Mid-19th century English school chronology page]
{Return to the Main English 19th century school page]
[Return to the Main English school uniform chronological page]
[Return to the Main school page]
[Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers] [Blazer [School sandals]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Main School Uniform Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Scotland]
[United States]

Navigate the HBC School Section
[About Us]
[Activities] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Debate] [Economics] [Garment] [Gender] [Hair] [History] [Home trends] [Literary characters]
[School types] [Significance] [Transport and travel [Uniform regulations] [Year level] [Other topics]
[Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to the Historic Boys' School Home]

Created: 4:24 AM 5/13/2023
Last updated: 4:24 AM 5/13/2023