Figure 1.--Here we see two twins. All we know is their first names Pearl and Earl. Unfortunatly we do not know their last names. They look to be about 4-5 years old. Earl looks' a year or two youngr, but note that Eral is described as 'her twin'. They both look to be wearing white dresses which unfortunately makes it difficult to make out the styling details, but there are differences. We think the collar is different, but this was difficult to make out. The sleeve lengths are different. The boy's skirt is pleated. (Actually he may be a blouse and skirt. It is difficult to tell.) And notice the dress hems. The girl's dress is fancier. Earl does have a floppy bow, but this was fairly standard for boys but not girls at the time. The cabinet card was dated 1889. The studio was Paul in Springfield, Misouri.

We notice siblings both wearing identically and differently styled dresses. Some of the identical dresses might not be perfectly identical, somewhat coordinated. There could be only minor differencs in style. Or the dresses could be done in matching colors, but with different styling. We have found some examples, but not very many yet that we can date definitively to the 1880s. One example are twins from Springfield Missouri dated 1889. We only know their first nhames. They both wear white dresses, but there are differences in the styling of their dresses. The girls dress is fancier than that of her brother's dress. Unfirtunstely as the dresses are white, it is difficult to makr out styling details. With our limited archive, we can not yet make any definative assessment about 1890s matching trends, but we hope to pursue this as we archive more images.

Created: 1:56 AM 7/30/2018
Last updated: 1:56 AM 7/30/2018