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This tintype portrait is of the eight children in an unidentified family. Unfortunnately there is no information associated with the portrait. The fact that oit is a cased tintype combined with the style of the children's dresses suggest that the portrait was taken in the 1860s. The lack of a revenue stamp suggests the late-60s to us. (Tin types were made into the 20th century, but cased tintypes were mostly made in the 185s and 60s.) At first we thought all the children were girls, but on closer examination, despite the fact that they are all wearing dresses, we believe that the group includes both boys and girls. Note the close progression. It is clear that this is all the children in the family. The children look to us anout age 1 to 12 or 13 years of age. The fact that even the older boys wear dresses here suggest to us that this was a city family. I don't think a far family could have afforded such frivolity. It is clear to us that the oldest child is a girl and the youngest a boy. The child in the checked dress (could this be an approximation of plaid) is a boy. He looks to be about 10 years old and even in the 1860s it was unusual for a boy this age not to be breeched. The two younger children in the front row on both sides of the little boy we believe are girls. Some of the others almost certainly are girls, but some also look very much like boys. As most of the children wear white dresses, it is not posible to make out much detail of the styling. Curiously only the youngest and oldest child wear waist bands. The elder girl wears a ribbon waist band. I'm not sure what the lirrle boy is wearing. All of the children have short hair which adds to the confusion in identifying who is who. We can assume, however, that the children with theor hair swept back are girls.
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