American Family: Boy Dresses (about 1870)


Figure 1.--We still notice boys of various ages wearing dresses in the 1870s. The one boy here looks older than most we have noted wearing dresses.

We still notice boys of various ages wearing dresses in the 1870s. The one boy here looks older than most we have noted wearing dresses. Unfortunately we do not have a good scan of this photograph or know anything about it. The children are unidentified and the image is not dated. We do not even know where the portrait was taken, other than it is almost certainly American. We believe it was taken in the early 70s, although the late 60s is possible. The most notable aspect of the portrait here is the age of the boys. A reader writes, "The boys here look a bit older than most I have noted wearing dresses. I would guess the oldest is either 8 or 10 years old, the next oldest 7 or 8 and the youngest maybe 2 or 3." Well we estimate slightly younger ages. The middle boy looks very young, probably 1-2 years. The boy on the right I would guess was about 6 years old. It is the child on the left that rather puzzles us. We would say that 8-10 years is a reasonable estimate. This is far beyond the age boys were breeched in the 1870s or in fact any time in the 19th century. And this is a proper dress, nit any kind od semi-female skited attire like tunics and kilts. The age of the child leads us to suspect that the child was a girl. Some girls did have short hair. But the child's hair is not only very short but has a notable side part. These side parts were not at all common for girls. So the child certainly looks like a boy. While most boys were breeched by about age 5, we know that some boys were breeched later. In wealthy families where children were taught at home, breeching might be delayed. This seems, however, rather on the upper limit of boys still not breeched.







HBC





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Created: 2:48 PM 8/6/2007
Last updated: 2:48 PM 8/6/2007