United States Family Scene: Gabriel Family (1958)


Figure 1.--Here we have a traditional family portrait of the Gabriel family in Hingham, Masachusetts. They look to be a well-to-do middle-class family. We see Charles J. Gabrriel with wife and three young children, two boys and a girl. The children look to be about 3-8 years old. Their little sister wears a white dress. Both boys wear open-collar shirts. The younger boy wears suspender shorts. The older boy wears regular shorts. Both have saddle shoes. One boy has dark socks, perhaps knee socks that haven't been pulled up. The younger boy wears white ankle socks.

Here we have a traditional family portrait of the Gabriel family in Hingham, Masachusetts. They look to be a well-to-do middle-class family. We see Charles J. Gabrriel with wife and three young children, two boys and a girl. The younger children look to be about 3-8 years old, pergapd 9 years old. Their little sister wears a white dress with puff sleeves. Both boys wear open-collar shirts. The younger boy wears suspender shorts. We guess tht they were the shorts to an Eton suit, but mother decided to dress the boys more casually. We think this was a political campaign portrait. This may hve been a choice to make the family look more like one of the folks. The older boy wears regular shorts. Both have saddle shoes. We think that they may be a Catholic family. And we note some boys wearing saddle shoes as part of their First Communion suits. The older boy has dark socks, perhaps knee socks that haven't been pulled up. The younger boy wears white ankle socks. Their casual clothes for a formal portrait reflect the increasing informality in popular dress. There are two young women which could be older daughters. The portrait was taken in 1958 when Gabriel who was an aide to the governor was running for Congress. A reader writes, "I have a friend who I went to college with. This portrait triggered an long-lost memory. I recall she talked about her little brother wearing a similar outfit to the older boy and how the socks (knee socks) always fell down and she thought it was very cute. This may be the case with the older brother in this portrait."







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Created: 2:12 AM 10/23/2016
Last updated: 4:03 PM 10/24/2016