Figure 1.-- The Swiss cabinet card portait of a boy wearing a Fauntleroy suit on the previous page shows what we thought was a Swiss boy. This exposes a weakness in HBC. We rely heavily on the photographic record and the assumption that the boy was Swiss because the portrait was taken in Switzerland. While this generrally works, it can give mistaken impressiion in smaller countries. And this was the case here. We have found a second photo of the same boy who we see here with his little sister. We do not have their last names, but we do have their first names -- Pearl and Donald. And they are clearly American or English because the information on the back of the card is written in English.

The Swiss cabinet card portait of a boy wearing a Fauntleroy suit on the previous page shows what we thought was a Swiss boy. This exposes a weakness in HBC. We rely heavily on the photographic record and the assumption that the boy was Swiss because the portrait was taken in Switzerland. While this generrally works, it can give mistaken impressiion in smaller countries. And this was the case here. We have found a second photo of the same boy who we see here with his little sister(figure 1). We do not have their last names, but we do have their first names -- Pearl and Donald. Pearl is 2 years and 9 months old and Donald 8 years old. And they are clearly American or English because the information on the back of the card is written in English. We also have the date of the portrait -- May 1890. The collars look more English than American. American collars were more commonly rruffled than lace collars. And we do not see large floppy bows which was very American. The low-cut shoes are Engklish. Miost American children wore high-top shoes. Also 'Pearl' was a very popular Ameriocan name in the late-19th century. (We are not sure about its use in Britain.) They coild be tourists, but at the time it was not common to take the children abroad. And we have two portraits from the same photograoher some 2 years apart. This suggests tgat they were living in Lusanne. Perhaps father was a buinessman. Of course there is also the issue of mother adopting local styles rather than whay was worn back home.

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Created: 2:06 PM 7/30/2024
Last updated: 2:06 PM 7/30/2024