Figure 1.Here we see two bothers wearing blouses in the early-1900s decade. One boy wearsa sailor blouse, the other a Fauntleroy blouse, boith with large floppy bows. A few years earlier, the older boys probbly would have worn a floppy bow as well. Te portrait is undated, but the mount style abnd clothes suggest the 1900s decade. A wiyth maby cnibet cards fter the turn-of-the 20th century, there was no studio informaton. The chikldren look to be about 1/2-9 years old..

Boys might wear blouses both with and without without suit jackets at the turn of the century. Many boys wore these blouses with large collars without jackets, especially during the warm summer weather. Men were still expected to wear suit jackets. Boys on the other hand commonly wore just blouses. A good example is Ellsie, Ellenor, and Nelson their little brother who was 6 years old from Lewenton, Maine in 1903 on the previous page. Here age was a factor. The youngr a boy was, the more likely he was to just wear a blouse rather than a jacket. This all varied from family to family. Fortunately after the appearance of the Kodak Brownie, we now have family snaphots to help with our asessments. And what we see in studio portraits may not be the general pattern in actual activities beyond the studio. We seem to see older boys just wearing blouses in snap shots and more wearing jackets in portraits. We still see more portraitsc than snapshots in the 1900s decade, but by the 1910s decade we see more and more family snapshots. Boys wear including blouses also varied seasonally. As the weather got cooler, jackets behan to be worn more, includung by younger boys.

Created: 9:35 AM 12/27/2023
Last updated: 9:35 AM 12/27/2023