Figure 1.--Here we see siblings from Blue Earth, Minnesota during 1888. The children look to be about 1-3 years of age. We think both children are boys, but the younger child may be a girl. The dresses are a little different, but both have lace collars.

We don't have enough dated images yet to properly assess 1880s dress styles. We notice both very simple dresses and much fancier ones. Collars varried. Lace collars seem to have been popular. Lace collars might be added to the basically plain dresses. We note modstly long sleeves. Hem lengths varied from below the knee to the ankles. I am not sure if this was considerd stylish or just to provide room for growth. The boy dresses seem plainer than the girl dresses, but this was largely at the discressioin of the mother. Colored bands on the skirt seems to have been a popular decoration.We note one popular styles wre jacketed dresses. A good example is the dress worn by Clifford Kellog Colton in 1888.

Created: 2:36 AM 8/6/2007
Last updated: 7:34 AM 4/4/2009