Figure 1.--This American boy is celebrating his 4th birthday. It looks like his big brother is doing the honors with the knife. It seems to be a small family celebration. The boys are wearing their best sailor suits. This family snapshot is undated, but was probably taken about 1930. It looks like mother has put out the best China.

HBC is not sure when the custom of the birthday party became firmly established in America. We think it was a Victorain development, presumably imported from Britain or Germany. It certainly was established by the late-19th century. I'm mot sure how much before that. We do not have many 19th century images of birthdays. The lack of images in the photogrphic record is not a reflection of prevalence. This is primarily because photography until the turn-of-the 20th century was a studio event. The earliest birhday we have archived at this time is a girls' party which took place around the turn-of-the 20th cetury in New England. It was not until the Kodak Browine made the home snapshot common that we begin to get large numbers of images of birthday parties. Also indoor photography was rather complicated so we do not see too many indoor snapshots early in the 20th century. We have seen photographs from the early-20th century. The photographic record shows that the birthday party seems to have been a well established convention during the early-20th century The family snapshot of the event became an essential part of the event. Traditions varies from family to family, but early-20th century birthday parties were often forml events with boys wearing their best suits and girls party dresses. Party photographs provide interesting views of both fashion and social conventions over time. Here we see boys about 1930 dressing up in very smart sailor suits for a small family affair (figure 1). I certainly remember my parties in the late 1940s and early 50s. My birthdays were rather informal affairs. We did not dress up. But other families at the time did. And by the 60s, birthday paries were becoming increasingly informal events.

The 19th Century

HBC is not sure when the custom of the birthday party became firmly established in America. We think it was a Victorain development, presumably imported from Britain or Germany. It certainly was established by the late-19th century. I'm mot sure how much before that. We do not have many 19th century images of birthdays. The lack of images in the photogrphic record is not a reflection of prevalence. This is primarily because photography until the turn-of-the 20th century was mostly a studio event. And birtday parties and other such events were not held inn studios. They were the kind of events that were caught by family snapshots. And for the most part thhe snapshot was a creation of the 20th centuy. This means that there coukld have been birthday parties in the 19th century and surely were, only they were not captured by photographs.

The 20th Century

The earliest birhday we have archived at this time is a girls' party which took place around the turn-of-the 20th cetury in New England. It was not until the Kodak Browine made the home snapshot common that we begin to get large numbers of images of birthday parties. Also indoor photography was rather complicated so we do not see too many indoor snapshots early in the 20th century. We think that the parties were mostly held in or around the home. The relative paucity of indoor imahes, probabky reflects the compication of lighting in taking indoor images. We have seen photographs from the early-20th century. The photographic record shows that the birthday party seems to have been a well established convention during the early-20th century The family snapshot of the event became an essential part of the event. Traditions varies from family to family, but early-20th century birthday parties were often forml events with boys wearing their best suits and girls party dresses. Party photographs provide interesting views of both fashion and social conventions over time. Here we see boys about 1930 dressing up in very smart matching sailor suits for a small family affair (figure 1). I certainly remember my parties in the late 1940s and early 50s. My birthdays were rather informal affairs. We did not dress up. But other families at the time did. And by the 60s, birthday paries were becoming increasingly informal events. And we begin to see more theme and asctivity party beyond the party games popular in the early-20th century.

Created: 2:57 AM 2/2/2005
Last updated: 1:38 AM 3/27/2023