Figure 1.--Tthis CDV portrait shows two unidentfied brothers wearing indentical blouse outfits. They look to be about6-9 years old. The CDV portrait is undated. The CDV format means that they were probably phototographed in the 1860s. Notice the small white collars. Thy look tobesewn on and not detaachable. The blouced sleeves probably means it was the early-60s. You can see the button-on trousert suppot butons verry quickly. Notice the long pants. Shortened-length pants were just beginning to become popular at the time.

The blouses we see are button-on styles. This of course is what we see in the portraits, this may or may not reflect how boys dressed every day, but there is definitely a notable shift in the studio portraits. This makes it difficult to assess blouses in the late-19th century because so many were covered by the jackets the boys are wearing. But in the 1860s we still see quite a number of blouses in the photographic record. As far as we can tell, buton-on styling was the major way for boys to hold up their pants in the 1860s. The boy's blouse here is a good example (figure 1). You can see the buttons at the waistline, for some reason unsually small.

Created: 4:53 PM 3/11/2025
Last updated: 4:53 PM 3/11/2025