Figure 1.-- While it was boys who mostly wanted waggons, some girls also had them. My guess is that few girls remembered their waggons as boys did when they grew up. Here we see two girls, probably in the 1910s. At least we think that they are girls, you nver can be quite sure. Image courtesy of the BP collection.

While it was boys who mostly wanted waggons, some girls also had them. My guess is that few girls remembered their waggons as boys did when they grew up. Here we see two girls, probably in the 1910s. At least we think that they are girls, you nver can be quite sure. This leads us to wonder about the identity of the children here. A reader writes, "The kids are wearing boys' clothes for the period. Looks like someone painted the bow on top of the head of the one on the left -- same color as the shoes. I have seeen boys wearing bows like this but not very common." Our reader is correct that the gender cluses here are rather cinfusing, so we have attmted to assess the hair styles and clothing in detail.

Chronology

We are not sure about the chronolgy here. We would guess the 1910s, wethink the early 10s. This was a photograph which was mounted on dark grey garboard. We suspect that this was a snapshot that mother took into a photographic studio to be colorized. Unless they were wealyhy, parents didn't bring a studio photographer him to take photographs. The house in the background is presumably their home. These photographs with cardboard backing were moist common in the early 20th century before Woirld war I. We think that it is probably not the 1900s because romper suits were less popular then.

Hair Bows

Hair bows are of course most associated with girls, but boys did wear them. We have begun to develop the topic of hair bows. The hair boe the child is wearing here is quite large and looks more like one a girl would have won. That said, we note bows boys are wearing. An example is two unidentified boys about 1905. Note that these boys have smaller bows set off to the side a bit. It was much more common for girls to wear large bows perched right on the top of their heads like the child n the photograph here (figure 1). And we note another unidentified child wearing a hair bow in a waggon during 1907. We are not at all sure about the gender of the child in that photograph. This photographhas been colorized so that the the hair bow is burgundy matching the shoes rather than the rompers. Thst seems to us a little unusual.

Hair Styles

The hair style of the girl on the left here is a little difficult to assess, but looks girlish to us. The child on the right wears bangs. Both boys and girls wore bangs. It was a very popular hair style in America. While bangs were very popular for boys, the way the child's hair is done at the side looks more like the way a girl's hair would have been styled.

Romper Suits

The gender conventions for romper suits varied from country to country. American children of both genders appear to have worn rompers. HBC has begin to address the topic of American romper gender conventions. Our assessment is still preliminary. It is I think safe to say that the rimper suits here could have been worn by boys. And we think girls could have worn them as well, although this as we say is still a preliminary assessment. Note that the rompers here have been colorized blue. Color gender conventions in the 1910s were not yet as hardened as they are today, but they had begin to form.

Hosiery

Both children are wearng black long stockings which were very common at the time. They were widely worn by both boys and girls.

Footwear

While the children seem to be wearing ythe same romper suits, their footwear looks to be different. The child at the left seems to be wearing high-top shoes. The child at the right wears double-strap sandals. The two children here each wear footwear worn by both boys and girls.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor hats] [Flat caps] [Sailor suits] [Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits] [Blouses] [Tunics] [Rompers] [Smocks] [Knickers] [Knee pants] [Long stockingsd] [Stocking supporters] [Sandals] [Pinafores]

Created: 4:34 PM 7/10/2008
Last updated: 4:34 PM 7/10/2008