Figure 1.--This CDV card is undated, but we would guess was taken in the late-1860s, perhaps about 1870. The child is unidentified, but we think may be a boy. Commonly girls had center parts, but the hair here is done differently than we often see with girls. W are not sure how to describe the dress style. The studio was Frank's Mammoth Photograph and Ferrotype Rooms in Philadelphia.

Necklines were quite variable during the 19th century when boys still wore dresses. We see quite arange of neckline treatment. Our information on the early-19th centuty is limited because we do not yet have photograohy. Here we are not sure as to the conventions, in part because the lack of photography limits the number of images. By the mid-19th century, photography provides us a great deal of information. We note many low necklines in the early-19th century for both youngr boys and girls. Age was certailly a factor. These low-necklines were very common for pre-school children. We are not sure if these low necklines were a kind of dressy style and that children for play and ordinary wear, had higher necklines. What we see in the studio portaits is of course how children were dressed up. At mid-century parents dressed up children for studio portraits. We see this commonly through the 1860s. Necklines bgan ro rise in the 1870s. And by the 80s, children had necklines around the neck. We note some European children with low necklines in the late 19th century, but this was very rare in America during the late-19th century. The necklines we commonly see at the end of the century are tight around the collar. We see various options for highneckline treatment. Two of the most common were ruffs and collars. We see some very fussy collars. The boy on theprevious page is a good example of a high fussy neckline. There were a range of collar designs and suzes. This was the Fauntleroy era and Fauntleroy styling affected dress collars as well.

Created: 6:43 PM 4/12/2015
Last updated: 6:43 PM 4/12/2015