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This cabinet card portrait shows all the young children of an unidentified family wearing similar sailor caps and blouses. The children look tobe about 2-7 years old and include both boys and girls. We are not sure when it was taken, but based on the mount we would guess the 1910s, pergaps the early-20s. We do not know where it was taken. The mount only said 'Photographer Artistic'. Sailor outfits were often based on actual naval uniforms. The caps and the detailing here were not based on actual uniforms.
A reader writes, "Due to the girl (older) being the only one with a bow in her hair; I suspect she is the only girl. Do you think the older two are fraternal twins? I do."
Tricky this one. We think our reader is correct that the the older child with lon hair is a girl. It is a distinct possibility that the third child from the left could be a girl. But he is also young enough to be a boy with curls.
The two older children definited could be twins. I did not think of it because the boy's hair is so different. As for the other older child, we wern't sure if it was a hair bow or a cockade on the cap.
Our reader adds, "I agree it is difficult. I assumed it was not a cockade on the hat because the two younger children do not have it (though their hats could be turned around). But since it is posed, I would assume the mother or photographer would have moved the cockade around for more siblings or it was to connote a girl. "
Another thought. If the two older children were twins, you might think that mother would have more perfectly matched the outfits as they presumably would have been bought at the same time.
Our reader adds, "Good point but there was an attempt to match them. To me it seems more that the sailor suits were close. None of them exactly matches. But the to end children have matching dark bands on their cap. So some effort in matching was made. That is what makes me think the girl has a hair bow rather that a cockade. It could be the three older outfits were navy blue and faded with washings over time and the youngest first wore his/hers? Total guess here but interesting speculation."
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