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The HBC biography section is for people or families that have achieved some degree of notariety or fame. HBC readers in many cases have submitted family portraits. HBC has until now not added them to the biography section. We believe now that this is a mistake. Many of the HBC readers contributing family portraits can also provide details about the boy and him family. This background information help us to assess social trends and put the fashions involved in perspective. This is just why the biographical section is an important part of HBC. As a result, HBC has decided to create pages for these relatively unknown people, when some basic family data is available. Incidentally if you find a relative here, please do tell us somehing about him. Here we are listing these biographies alpahabetically to facilitate looking up individual names. The alphabdetical list is the primary data base in this section. While we have not persued geneolgical resreach on these individual, having the names and in many cases the loaction provide the potential to acquire more back ground information in the future which may provide additonal insights into the fashion and life style trends.
Robert D'Amicio did his First Communion on April 13, 1947. The portrait shows him in his white short pants suit which would have been purchased judst for the occassion. He has a white floppy bow rather than a necktie. This was one of the last times we have noted boys wearing floppy bows rather than a necktie. He also had a First Communion sleeve bow. His suit has knee-length shorts and short socks worn with white shoes. Robert is holding a prayer book and rosary beeds. I am not sure where he is from, but he may have lived in Massachsuettes.
This 1862 CDV is one of the earliest CDVs we have archived on HBC. It is a Civil War school scene. The portrait shows two school chums, Fred Newcomb and Wolcott Daboll. The boys are posed in Civil War style uniformsand muskets. One boy has a bayonet added. The uniforms have a star on the chest. The boys attended the Hill St. School, we believe in New London, Connecticut. We believe this was a private school. This and the elaborate uniforms suggest to us that the boys came from an affluent family. The uniforms suggest that the school was a military school, but I don't think this was the case. The uniforms seem more a kind of patriotic exercise, perhaps used for drill. The boys were part of Star Company. I think this was a fairly small school, so there may not have been other companies. We are not sure about that. The photographer was Morgan & Bolles in , New London.
We know that the boy who wore this skirted suit was Harry Danniel, but we know nothing more definitively about him. He apparently was born in the late 1850s. He either was born or raised in San Diego, California, although we are not positive about this.
Here we see a portrait of Elmer Dayton. He wears a suit with a cut-away jacket. The jacket, however, does not match the pants. We see a dark shirt, but we can not make out much detail. He wears long pants with his suit. They look to be button-on pants. Knickers and kneepants were after the Civil War becoming increasingly popular for younger boys. Shortened length pants were very common with cut-away jackets, but as we see here they were also worn with long pants. Many boys even younger boys Elmer's age still wore long pants. Notice the cap Elmer is holding. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. There is a transcription on the back. It reads, "Fredericksburg, March 2nd, 1870, Elmer Dayton age 6 years 9 months, To cousin Adin"
HBC notes a minature portrait of Charles Delacroix, a child who we believe to be a member of a prominent New Orleans family. The portrait executed in a naive or primative style is actually quite well done. We date it to about the 1840s. The artist provides some fine details on Charles' clothing.
Here is an amazing period presentation of two English ninth plate daguerreotypes of children doing sums on a chalkboard. They are mounted on period gilt-paper rather than in cases which we have found in America. I'm not sure how common this was a way of displaying are archiving dags in England. We have not noted it in America. There is a period inscription on the reverse "Jane Elizabeth Anne Dennis age 7 years 27 May / Edward John Dennis age years 11.... 11th July / James Alexander Dennis aged 9 years 17th May / done at Highgate on the day of Thanksgiving November 15th 1849 / from the town being... relieved from Cholera / by E Dennis". The girl looks to be wearing a dress. I'm less sure what the boys are wearing. It looks to be tunic outfits or perhaps smocks worn with small white collars and bows. The scene with slates looks rather like achool scene, but I believe the portraits were taken at home. I'm not sure if these were the clothes the children would have worn to school. The dags here are unique, engaging and evocative. These beautiful little ninth plates have a dark tonality, as corresponds to their amateur origin. I would read the inscription to mean that E. Dennis, a relative and very likely the children's father, was the photographer who produced them. Front glass has been replaced.
Ronnie L. Dennis was a boy preacher, we think in the 1900s. We have not been able to find much about his preachng. We do not know where he was from in America. He was outfitted in a sailor suir which he wore with ringet curls and small hair bows.
The back of this portrait identified the children as Dale, Richard and Ruth Dettmer . The portait is not dated, but we would guess was taken in the early 1920s. The older boy wear a white shirt and tie with knickers and long black stockings. His younger brother wears a button-on sailor suit, kneespcks, and saddle shoes. Their little sister wears a white dress, white long stovkings, and strap shoes.
Here we have a wonderful colorized Daguerreotype portrait. All we know about the boy is that his name was Elisha Dickerman because he is identified in a period pencil loose note. Elisha looks to be about 6 years old. We have no idea where he was from in America. He has long shoulder-length ringlet curls. The portrait is colorized, but in this case Ekiza is wearing black or dak-colored clothing so the studio has mostly colorized the table cloth. We are not sure when the portrait was taken, but gicen that it is a Daguerreotyoe, we are probably talkibng about the 1840s or early 50s. We tend to think the early 50s because of the boy's clothing. One interesting aspect of the portrait was that Elisha's jacket buttons are closed at top and bottom, but open in between. His hand is atop a slim white cane. 5 Notice his big gold ring. Also interesting is his fancy white hat with robin's egg blue band.
This charming cabinet card portrait of a young boy about 3 years old is identified as Burt Dodge, as written in ink on the back of the card. We know nothing about Bert and his family. His outfit suggests that they lived in coimfortable circumstances. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1880s. Bert is dressed in a frilly Fauntleroy blouse shirt with a large bow at the neck. He has a kilt suit. The jacket is a small Fauntleroy -style jacket designed to best display the fancy blouse. There is a matching kilt-skirt, long black stockings and high button shoes. The light color and material suggests that this is a summer outfit. Bert has a tiny gold ring on his right hand. Rings like this were not very common. His hair is short, cut in bangs. The photographer, Flodin & Thyberg, 411 Main Street, Worcester, Massachussetts. So we know that Bert was from Woocester.
This Tintype was found with a CDV of the Moore store in Taylorsville, Tennessee and other CDVs and tintypes. They were together in an envelope marked Tennessee. We were told they were all from the same area. Some CDVs have a Taylorsville photographer's backmark. This is a very charming tintype portrait. A little boy is dressed like an adult in a shirt with a bow tie and a hat. He's not wearing the usual boy's clothing of the era and looks like a grown up! He is identified on the back in scripted pencil as Dick Donnelly. His proper name would have been Richard. We believe this to be from the Taylorsville (now Mountain City) area of Tennessee. There is a Richard Donnelly who is prominent in Taylorville and mentioned in the 1868 Johnson County Claims Comission. This could be his son. The tintype is in a paper sleeve with an oval opening. We estimate this to be from the late 1860s or early 70s.
This portrait shows an American American boy wearing a dark blouse and floppy bow. We are not sure about the colors. The bow could have been read, w are not at all sure what color the blouse was. He had a stiff Eton collar. He also wears knee pants and probably black long stockings. The portrit is undated, but looks to have been taken about 1905. We do not know where it was taken, but we do have the boy's name--Charles Dorff.
Here we have a portrait of William Dougherty. He was presumably from St. Louis, Missouri because his portrait was taken at the Murillo studio there. The portrait is not dated but we would guess that it was taken about 1905. His elegant sailor suit looks like the styles popular at the turn of the 20th century. The style of the portrait mount suggest that the portrait was taken in the 1900s, roughly anout 1905. William wears a fancy suit, buckled shoes, and long curls. Notice how the jacket decorated with elaborate buttons does not close so as to show off a fancy dickey.
Here we have a portrait of Jo... Gordon Downhill. He stands on a landscape background, holding a book in his hand. He is seen inside a painted oval. He seems to be dressed in a kilt and he holds a hat (probably a Glengary) in his left hand. He has a friendly and open expression. The artist is an unidentified British painter. The painting is unsigned, but has an old inscription on the reverse: "Jo..Gordon Downill born Wednesday 4th May 1843. This painting done by Mr. Be... nov. 1854". We believe that the boy is prbably Scottish, because Queen Victoria promoted the fashion of dressing boys in kilts during the 1840s, so he could bre Scottish. I'm not sure if Downhill is an English or Scottish name, but the background seems Scottish to me.
This Rhode Island cabinet portrait shows the three Drowne boys identified as Chrissie, Robbie and Fred Drowne. It was probably taken during the 1870s. The studio photographer was Brownell & Co., 90 Westminster St, Providence, Rhode Island. We are not sure who is who, but the normal convention was to use the same order as the boys were depicted beginning from the left. The boys proper names were Christopher Stafford, Robert Holden, and Frederick Peabody Drowne. These names were from our own research. The card uses only their identifies sentimental names. Only two of the boys have been breeched. Here the boys wear a dress, a kilt suit, and a knee pants suit. Family images like this help to clarify breeching conventions. The boys look to be about 2-7 years old. The two boys wearing skirted outfits are clearly pre-school bioys, we would say about 2-4 years old.
Here we have a photo postcard. It is undated, but we would gues was taken about 1910. As the card was sent by Stanley Durham, we can only assume this is his son. We do not know the boy's first name, but surely his last name is Durham. That sounds rather like a Scottish name, but they lived in Southport which I believe is in England. The boy is dressed in a Highland kilt complete with tam and eagle feather. He wears his kilt and tweed jacket with an Eton collar. We do not know if he is wearing a kilt because of family connections or he is just an English boy being dressed fashionably. The card was sent to a Miss G.Gaskell who was vacationing on the IOM (Isle of Man).
Here we see what seems to be two French children as the portrait was taken in France. The photographer was Ordinaire of Dinard [Brittany, France]. The portrait is undated, but it looks to us was taken in the 1880s. A pencilled inscription on the reverse of the mount identifies the sitters. The girl is Florence Drury-Lowe; the boy, who is wearing a sailor suit, is fittingly identified as “Admiral Sydney”. The inscription is prophetic – Sydney Drury-Lowe later entered the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of Vice-Admiral. Since the woman he married when he grew up was a granddaughter of both the Earl of Wemyss and the Earl of Albemarle, he appears in the Peerage. His full name was Sydney Robert Drury-Lowe and he was the son of Colonel Robert Henry Curzon Drury-Lowe. He married Clare Susan Charteris (1909). She was the daughter of Captain Hon. Fredrick William Charteris and Lady Louisa Keppel. Vice-Admiral Sydney Drury-Lowe died January 24, 1945.
This boy's name is Louis Dubois. Written at the bottom of the CDV is "Louis Dubois fils d'Oscar". (Louis Dubois son of Oscar Dubois.) A French reader tells us that Dubois is one of the most classical French family names. He looks to be about 5 years old. We do know he was from Macon. We are not sure where that is in France. The portrait was probably taken in the late 1870s. We know that because a 1877 prize was noted on the back. Thus the portrait was surely tken in the late 70s or very early-80s. It is a little difficult to make out Louis' outfit, but it looks like a tunic with a white collar. He seems to be wearing long white stockings and pantalettes with his tunic.
This American boy wears his long hair in ringlet curls. His name is Chris Eckenfels. He looks to be about 4 years old. He wears a velvet suit trimmed and a large satin bow. Chris' mother seems to have really liked bow. The suit is a classic cut-away jacket and knee pants. The jacket is connected with a large bow and there are bows at the knee hem of the pants. The photographer was the Chesnutt Brothers in Cleveland, Ohio. The portrait is undated, but the style of the clothes and card suggest it was taken in the 1890s.
This is a wonderful Daguerreotype portrait of Edward D. Edwards, we believe in the 1840s. One of the problems in working with Daguerreotypes is that so few are unidentified or dated. Thus we have trouble differentiating between the dags taken in the 1840s and 50s. Edward was 10 years old when this portrait was taken. It is also interesting because it was an otdoor portrait, probably because his father was a Daguerreotypeist. Edward stannds with a donkey in front of a building, presumbly his home. He wears a military-styled peaked cap. Note the shiny peak or bill. He also wears a belted tunic. The portrait may have been lightly tinted. He holds the reins firmly and looks intently at the Daguerreotypist intently, presumably his father. Edward was the son of early Daguerrean artist Jonas M. Edwards who wotked in both Washington, D.C. (1842-44) and New York City (18440-46). He was partners with Edward Anthoy in the Faguerreotype Studio Anthony, Edwards & Co, both in Washington and New York. There is a reference to the portrait being taken at Hunter, presumably Hunter, New York. It is a onequarter dag, housed in a full plain leather case, red silk insert.
Emery Washington Elliot was 3 1/2 years old when his portrait was taken at the Perkins studio in San Francisco. The cabinent card is undated, but it looks to be from the early 1880s. Emery wears dark a plaid kilt suit with a bow and ruffled collar. The bow is what suggests the early 80s to us, even perhaps the late 70s. It is not the floppy bow style that was so popular in the 1880s. He also has striped stockings and high-top shoes. His hair is cut short with a side part.
This cabinet card portrait shows Paul Elwell fom Kent, Ohio. The studio was McCartney. Paul wears a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit with a cut-away, but not open jacket. He has a large white collar and matching cuffs, but not particularly fancy. He has a large floppy bow that looks to be a pastel color and not white.The suit has knee pants which Paul wears with black long stockings. His hair is done in modest ringlets. The portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken in the 1890s.
We note an interesting family photo of John Espey as a boy of almost 6 years of age and his sister, Mary Frances Espey. who was 8 years old. The snapshot was taken in the garden of a girls' school in the missionary compound of South Gate, a suburb of Shanghai, China, in 1918. John wears a white short-pants summer suit in 1918 with an Eton collar. Notice the long black stockings, worn even in summer time. John was the son of Presbyterian missionary to China. He and
his sister were born and grew up in Shanghai, living in the two contrasted worlds of the pious religious compound of the mission (at South Gate) and the canals and alleys of Shanghai. In a memoir of his boyhood, John Espey, now an emeritus professor of English at UCLA, writes about his schoolboy clothes during the period of the 1920s (about 1920-24) in China. He was dressed like most American boys of the period (his family was originally from Iowa), although perhaps a bit more conservatively than some boys because of the strict religiosity of his parents and also perhaps because he was living
abroad where American childhood fashions would be slower to catch on.
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