Figure 1.--At the turn of the 20th century many Americans still lived on the farm. This family in 1905 lived in a sod house. This family lived in North Dakota near the Canadian border. This family has six young children, all are barefoot. The boys wear kneepants. Notice the one boy with the family Bible. Also note the important place for the family dog.

Many images exist of American families. These images are interesting because they show the fashions that all members of the family wore over time. HBC has limited its analysis to boys' clothing--itself a massive undertaking. These family photographs help to put the boys clothes into better perspective, showing what girls, women, and men were weraing at the same time. The family portraits also add some cultural context as they provides clues as to the social status or occupation of the parents--until the 20th century mostly the fathers. Most of the portraits are of the privligded classes, but by the late 19th centuries falling prices at photographic studios had brought the family portrait within in the reach most American families. Thus family portaits provide wonderful historical records of fashion. They also offer fascinating insights into the structure of the American family.

Individual Families

HBC has collected information on quite a number of American families. Here we have included both nuclear and extended failies. Often the images we have found do not include every family member. For this section we like to include both the children and adult family members to provide a look at how adults were dressed and what adult clothing was associated with chilfren's fashions. We are also interested in sociolgical facrors associated with family fashion.

The 17th Century

Engish investors founded the first permanent settlements in the early 17th century, first at Jamestown, Vurginia (1609) and then at Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). We do not yet have any images of American families during this period.

The 18th Century

Portait painters from city studios and more commonly itinerate artyists have left us several wonderful images of Amerucan families in the 18th century. Most of these artists had no real artistic training. While they were not great mastyers, many depicted hair styles and dashion in great detail. We have only a few images of early American families in the 18th century, but have not yet linked them here. Most are located in the American art section. A good example is the William Mosley family in 1791. Readers should remenber that for the most part the painted portraits record the Colonial elite who largely following European styles. We know less about back woods styles.

The 19th Century

Images of early 19th century American families are mostly affluent families which could afford to have a portrait painted. With the development of photography in the 1830s, we begin to see many more imsges of American families by the mid-19th century. Photogography enabled even humble families to have their portraits taken. Most 19th century imsages, however are very formal views of the American family. Snap shots begin to appear in the 1890s, but amateur photography was still relatively complicated and expensive and early informal snapshots are generally of affluent families.

The 20th Century

The development of the Kodak Brownie camera in 1900 meant that many American family could take family snap shots. We begin to get less formal images of family life. Soon we begin to get candid often amimated images of family life. These images show the clothes worn by the entire family thriughout the century. Not only do we see the varioys garments, but we can observe the steady development of informal styles as the century progressed--the most important single fashion trend. Color images bregin to appear before World War II, but do not become common until the 1970s. Digital imaged begin to appear in the 1990s.

Siblings

Many available photographs show boys by themselves or with one oir two siblings. Hundreds of these portaits have been added to HBC. They provide in many cases insights on how parents accounted for age in clothing selected for their children. They also raise interestuing questions about sbling relationships. One American reader writes, "I don't think it's any secret that at least 90 percent of people have. Many don't get on with each other well, when adults. This usually extends back to childhood. I know quite a few brothers who, every now and again, physically scrap with each other, as adults. They maybe the exception, they do. My brother and I are civil with each other, and can co-operate in a cause. As children we did not get along well."

Members

The nuclear family of mom and dad and one or two children is now the standard Americamn family. This of course was not always the case. Families used to be larger, a reflection of the largely agricultural backgrounds of most American families. We not only notice more children, but also other fmily members such as grandparents, uncles, and aunts. In the era before Social Security, groen-up children were expected to care for their parents in old age. Maiden aunts were also taken in by family members. This of course in some cases made fir very large families. We can see this in several of the HBC 19th century family pages. Affluent families might have servants are help for the more modestly affluent. These people would not have been considered family members. One exception here was help that cared for the children, nurse maids and governesses. Nanny that stayed with the family over an extended period may havevbeen considered quasi-family members. This varied from family to family. In some instances, nannies who cared for a child might also care for that grown-up child's children. In some 19th century families, the children might be closer to the nannies and governesses than the parents.

Age Grading

One convention that can be seen in many family portaits is age grading. This is actually related to the convention of dressing children in identical or coordinated outfits. Age grading was also used when the children were dressed in differehnt types, but not necesarily identical outfits. This is of course adopted with children that are close in age. In the 19th and early 20th century, families were commonly larger than they are today. Thus it was not appropriate to dress all the children alike. In large families there mighgt be two or three levels of age grading. There were alson refinements of age grading. Children might, for example, wear the same suit, but with alterations such as different collars and neck wear ot trouser types. There are many examples of age grading on HBC. We will start to link some of the here as examples. A good example of a family whichpracticed this approach is the Rockefellers. We note an Louisiana family (1924). Age grading is a convention that virtually disappeared in the late 20th century. We are not sure why age grading when out of style.

Created: March 12, 1998
Last updated: 12:45 AM 2/18/2008