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A HBC reader has provided us some images of a New Illinois family--the Overaker family. They were from Springfield, Illinois--the state capital. Some of the photographs are from the 1940s. We aldso see various family members in different decades. Unfortunately we do not know much about the fa,ily other than can be deduced from the photographs.
This formal portrait shows Lewis's mother, Clarissa Jones, at the age of 2 years,
with her older brother James Jones, Lewis's uncle (aged 6). This photo was taken in 1913 in Springfield, Ill. The children are dressed for a formal studio portrait. The girl wears a white dress, white long stockings, white spats and black shoes. Her older brother wears a tunic suit with wide lapels and a dickey and a black belt. Under the tunic he wears matching white knee pants, white long stockings, and black button-spats over his black shoes.
This family snapshot shows Lewis Overaker in 1944-45 at the age of about
3 yeas in his stroller, also in Springfield. He wears a white knit long-sleeved shirt with buttons that come down only half-way on his chest, and loose button-on shorts that are very fully cut so that they hang in folds. He is obviously in play clothes of the period.
Here we see Lewis at age 4 standing next to his brother Guy (aged 6) in 1947 at Springfield (figure 1). Lewis is wearing a striped, long-sleeved tee shirt with long trousers. Guy wears a white short-sleeved shirt with short trousers. At the extreme left we see
Clare Ide (a cousin of the Overaker brothers), aged 10. Notice her beret. Next to Guy is another cousin, Bill Ide (aged 7), wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and button-on shorts. Bill also wears a peaked schoolboy-style cap similar to the type worn by English schoolboys of the period. A fourth child of unknown identity stands at the extreme right of the group wearing a leather aviator helmet trimmed with fur over the
forehead (a bit too warm for the summer weather, one would think) and
bib overalls. He also wears a jacket over the over the overalls. This boy seems to have been chillier than the other children. The variety of children's clothes in this photo is remarkable, especially for the boys--long pants, short pants with a belt, button-on shorts, and bib overalls. The variety of headgear is also interesting--a beret, a peaked cap, and a leather helmet (apparently inspired by pilots' gear).
The photograph taken in 1955 are of Lewis J. Overaker and his father,
Guy Overaker. They were photographed near their house in Springfield, Illinois. Lewis, aged 12, wears striped Bermuda shorts with argyle ankle socks and a white
short-sleeved shirt. He has the family dog in his arms. Notice the
short, almost crew-cut hair cut. The shorts are Bermuda style--fashionable in 1955 among the more affluent families, but more common on the East coast than in the Midwest.
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