Figure 1.--This photograph is dated 1886, but I am not sure how acurately. It looks more like the 1870s to me. Sailor suits became in the 1870s an increasingly important boys' fashion and were well established by the 1880s. Kneepants were also becoming widely worn by boys, but were not yet as commion in the ealy 1870s as they were to be in the 1880s and 1890s. Also notice the boy's long, but not shoulder length hair.

This photograph is dated 1886, but I am not sure how acurately. It looks more like the 1870s to me. Sailor suits became in the 1870s an increasingly important boys' fashion and were well established by the 1880s. Kneepants were also becoming widely worn by boys, but were not yet as commion in the ealy 1870s as they were to be in the 1880s and 1890s. Also notice the boy's long, but not shoulder length hair.

AHBC reader tells us, "I have made a study of historical clothing myself, and the photo of the woman w/the 2 children that you say is dated 1886, but feel is more a 70's photo is, indeed, from the 1880s. This can be told from the woman's hair, her dress, and the little girl's hair and dress. The bodice of the woman's gown is the more hour-glass shape, with the sleeve shoulders beginning to rise (which would blossom into the huge shoulders of the 90s). The front of the skirt does not have the more involved drapery of the 70s, but the heavy ornamentation of the 80s. Her train is not the fishtail of the mid- to late 70's, but the picture is clearly not the early 70s (the sleeves are set in at the shoulder, & all the other details listed above firmly belie this). Her hair-do is the small, close set preferred in the 80s. The little girl's dress - the straight bodice, dropped waist and plain round skirt - is a hallmark 80s style. Her bangs are also an 80s style, which you can see her mother is hesitant to adopt - she may have been more conservative, or her hair just way too curly." [Susan Cohen, E-mail message, Septemver 21, 2003.]

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Created: July 21, 2003
Last updated: July 21, 2003