Figure 1.-- Here we see a rural French Canadian family in 1908. The photograph shows four kids (infant to about 6 years ols), mom and the family pooch. Their rather new wooden home, which they are obviously proud of, is in the background. Dad presumably took the snapshot. If the family had been photographed in a studio, we would not know that they were a smaa town/rural family. The clothing seems the same as what was worn in the city. The styles are also identical toAmerican fashions. There is birth and death information on the back of the snapshot, but not their last name or location. We would guess that it was taken in Quebec. Another scan gives us a better view of the house and we can see it is located in a small village.

We are not sure yet to what extent Candian children dressed differently in rural and urban areas. It is difficult to tell in the 19th century because photograohy was mostly studio portraits. Thus we do not know if the subjects libed in the country or city. This changed at the turn of the century when thanks to Kodak and other compnies, the amateur snapshot became a major pheomenon. In the neighboring United States overalls suddenly appeared about 1908 and then unto the 40s there were majoe differences between how boys in the city and country dressed. Overalls appeared much earlier, but for some reason do not appear in the photograohic record until the 1900s. We do not have a lot of early-20th century snap shots yet so we are just beginning to assess demographic trends. We see some children in the countryside dressed similarly to city childrren.

Created: 8:58 AM 2/4/2018
Last updated: 8:58 AM 2/4/2018