Figure 1.--This child wears a dress with an undefined waisline. The styling wih the band on the sjort, howevervgives the illusuoon of a below-the waist waistline. The dress is also styled somewhat like a kilt suit. While the child is unidentified, he certainly looks like a boy despite the center part of the hair. He looks to be about 5-6 years old. The small bow and patterned stockings suggest the 1870s. The guilded framing of the cabinet card suggests the late-1870s. The studio was B.W.T. Phreaner in Hagerstown, Maryland.

We notice quite a few low waistlines in the late-19th century and very early-20th century. They were done with different styles. We do not yet archived enough dated images to adequately date these below-the-waist designd, but are working in it. have enough image good example is Bert Cross anout 1905. This included both actual waistlines as well as dresses designed to give the look of a low waistline. As with the other alternatives, we see a range of different dress styles being done with low waistines. Here we have a fairly good coverage because by the time it was most popular, photography was well estanished, although the fact that many portraits are undated complicates estblishing a time line here. We are hoping that other sources such as paintings or catalog will help to establish a basic time line. Catalogs become much more important at the end of the century along with lithogrphy and the quality of printed images.

Created: 2:43 AM 3/7/2016
Last updated: 2:43 AM 3/7/2016