Figure 1.--This unidentified American child wears a fancy dress, probably in the 1890s. This dress has no waistline, but fancy baloon sleeves. Note the locket. The dress looks rather for a boy, but the child certainly looks like a boy. |
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This unidentified American child wears a fancy dress, probably in the 1890s. This dress has no waistline, but fancy baloon sleeves. Note the locket. The dress looks rather for a boy, but the child certainly looks like a boy. Normaly boys wire more simple dresses, but this was not always the case. It dependended primarily on the mother's fashion judgement. The child also looks older than the age at which most boys wore dresses. We would guess the child is about 7-8 years old. A reader asks, "Are you sure the child is a boy? The whole attire looks very girlish. And short hair is no guarantee for a boy. The face looks more boyish to me but we can't be sure." Yes the only way to be sure is when the portraits have the name wriiten on them. And indeed we have found portraits of girlsith short hair that we would have identified as boys. Often the short hair worn by girls is done a little differently than for boys. The hair here looks like a boy's cut to us. But our reader is correct to remind us that there is no way to be sure.
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