Figure 1.--This looks to be a child about 7-8 years old. We would guess the child is a girl. It looks like she is wearing a dress. It possibly could be a boy, but we think a girl is more likely.

There are many portraits of the Coe family, including babies, children, and adults. Unfortunately none of the CDVs are identified. Thus we do not know the individals' names. We can only categorize them by approximate age and outfits. Here the ages saindicated are estimates. We would be interested if HBC readers have any comments on the ages or clothing. Some of the children of course may have been photographed more than once at different ages. We do not know if the various photographs were all different children or some photographed multiple times. The clothing styles suggest a relatively narrow time frame so we sre guessing that most of the portraits of the children are different individuals. The outfits are a good overview of popular children's styles during the 1860s. For some reason, almost all the children seem to ne boys.

Girl: 7-8 Year Old

This looks to be a child about 7-8 years old (figure 1). We would guess the child is a girl. It looks like she is wearing a dress. It possibly could be a boy, but we think a girl is more likely. The hair is done in short curls.

Boy: 2 Years Old

We believe that this child is a boy. Despite the hair do, he looks like a boy to us. Plaid dresses are oftn used for boy dresses because of the association with kilts.The dress seems to hve black velvet trim. The belt and buckle worn over the dress at the waist is also a boyish touch. He has short ringlets.

Boy: 3 Years Old

This child is almost certainly a boy. The short hair is a strong indicator. We would guess that he is about 3-yeas old. He looks to be wearing a plaid dress with pantalettes, white long stockings, and strap shoes.

Boy: 5-6 Years Old

We would guess that the boy here is 5-6 years old. He wears a dark suit with a cut-away jacket. I can't make out what type of blouse or neckwear he wears. His suit has kneepants which he wears with stripped stockings. He wears relatively short hair.

Boy: 8 Years Old

The child here looks to be about 8-years old. He looks to be wearing a turtle-neck sweater. It is a dark sweater, but I am not sure about the color.

Boy: 10 Years Old

The boy here looks to be about 10 years old and wears a single-breasted sack suit. Note that it is a single-breasted suit, rather than the more juvenile cit-away jacket. The jacket as a high-lapel. It is a light-colored summer suit. The suit has long pants suits, kneepants in the 1860s were still worn by relatively young boys. It looks to be a cream color. It is difficult to make out his neckwear. His hair is worn short, but not cropped.

Boy: 11 Years Old

The child here is a boy. He looks to be about 11 years old and wears a suit. We can see much of the suit, but it was a dark suit. His hair is worn down to partially cover his ears.

Boy: 12 Years Old

The boy here looks to be about 12-years old. He wears a light-colored single-breasted suit. I'm not sure about the color, but it was probably a summer suit. The interesting element to this portrait is that the boy is wearing a tam which seems to match the suit. This was not a cap style that boys normally wore with single-breasted sack suits.

Pair

Here we have a pair of childre, surely brother and sister. The older child looks to be about 5 years old and wears a white blouse with a very simple bow. We can't make out much detail on the blouse. He also wears very long kneepants with embroidered hems. Note the two ornanental hem buttons. The younger child looks to be about 3 years old, but we are not sure who the younger child is. We think it may be a girl, but there is no way of being sure. The child is wearing a plaid dress. We are not sure about the color. It looks like the child is wearing pantalettes and white stockings.

Created: 10:34 PM 5/28/2006
Last updated: 10:34 PM 5/28/2006