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Two brothers Carcie Allen and Robert Lester Kemp had their portrait taken about 1898. They lived in Smith County, Tennessee. We know that Carcie Allen was born on May 29, 1894 and his older brother Robert Lester on October 17, 1891. So their portrait was probably taken about 1898. The boys both wear white blouses with large ruffled collars. Robert's blouce seems to be more ruffled than tht of his younger brother. Both boys have bows, but rather more modest than mny that we have seen. Around the turn of the century, the floppy bows boys wore began to decline in size. The portrait must have been tken during the summer. Even though th boys wear fancy blouses, they are both barefoot. Interestingly, we seem to see more of these barefoot portraits in the 1890s and 1900s than before or after. We are not sure why. We do not believe that going barefoot was more common than in the early- and mid-19th century. It was probably less common for a variety of reasons (urbanization, higher incomes, more comfortable shoes, ect.). We believe we see more brefoot images because we supect two factors at play. One was the declining cost of a photographic portrait. The other was that there were more oportunities, such as itinerate photographers and studios set up in places like county fairs. Note the primitive backdrop here, the kind of set up you would expect from an itinerate photogrpher or country fair rather than a proper studio.
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