Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows an unidentified American boy with shortish ringlets and wearing a Norfol-styled knee pants suit with a pin-on lace collar. He looks to be about 5-6 years old which is probably why he does not wear a classic Fauntleroy suit. Notice the staw jockey cap. This boy has elaborate side styling with the roinglets done in front of the ear. This was the least common variation. The card is not dated, but the mount style and outfit looks like the 1890s to us. The photographer was the Wilson studio in Malden. The card which unusally does not m ention the state, but we assume is Massachusetts. Notice the outdoors background and balistrade. We wonder if this was chosen conciouly by mother to follow Mrs. Burnett's Fauntleroy story where Cedric goes to live on his grandfather's estate in England.

There were a range of variations concerning how to style the hair at the side of the boy's head. This was affected to some extent by how mother decided to do the front, bangs or some other style. The front styling affected the side styling. Thankfully, the photographic record unlike the back of the head, provides considerable information on the sdes. There were two basic alternatives, side styling with and without ringlets. Usually the ringlets seem to fall at the side and back. This was the general style when the ringlets were formed from hair combed down center parts. If the ringlets were formed from one side part, that would means the ringlets would be different on each side of the boy's head. We also notice some boys had their hair styled like a boy with short hair with the ringlets only at the back. An exanple here is an unidentified Phildelphia boy, we think in the 1870s, As regards ringlets, there were three options, beginning the ringlets behind the ears, over the ears, or to the front of fhe ears.

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Created: 4:32 PM 11/5/2015
Last edited: 4:32 PM 11/5/2015