American Boy Dresses: Individual Experiences


Figure 1.-- This unidentified portrait was taken in Marion Indiana. It is undated, but we would gues was taken in the 1880s. The child looks rather like a girl, but for several reasons we believe the child is a boy. Ringlets like this were common for boys, perhaps more common than for girls. The lace collar was also commonly worn by boys. In addition, the plain styling of the dress, the stance, and the whip all seem to suggest the child is a boy.

There are many examples of American boys wearing dresses archived on HBC. We have only begun to build links to them here. Many are not preciesly dresses. Most of the skirted outfits worn by boys in the early 19th century were dressess. This began to change after mid-century. By the mid-19th century a variety of skirted outfits are more common, especially skirt/kilt suits. But quite a number are actual dresses as well.

The 1860s


California Boy (1862)

The San Diego Historical Society has archived that is boy's three-piece dress/suit. It was made of Wool flannel, cotton, silk velvet ribbon, and metal buttons. It was worn about 1862. The SDHS suggests that similar styles were shown in La Mode Illustré, a contemporary French fashion mafazine showing children's and women's fashions. The magazine began publishing in 1840 and circulated among fashionanle American women. Boys in the early 19th century wore dresses essentially the same as his sisters. In a large family, a young boy would have probably worn hand me downs from his older sisters. By mid-century, boys were still wearing dresses, but attempts began creating styles that were destinctly boyish. Military styling is a major fashion influence. Miliitary styling is a particularly umportant influence oin men and boys' clothing , but even girl's and women's clothing is also affected. Here the black embroidery and use of buttons awell as the stripe detailing is clearly inspired by military fashions. The outfit looks like an early kilt suit. There is clearly an attempt to differentiate this outfit from a dress. This style of jacket was commonly worn by younger boys in the 1860s-80s, often with a waistcoat as seen here. The jacket might be worn wiyh both skirts or trousers. In this case there is no attempt to make the matching skirt look like a kilt.

The 1870s


Unidentified family (about 1870)

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."

Unidentified Child (Early 1870s)

A HBC reader has provided this image to us. As with many tin types, there is no accompanying information as to who the child is and when the the portrait was taken. Our contributor thought perhaps the 1860s. Possibly, but we would tend to guess the early 1870s. We are unsure as to even if the child is a boy or girl. I might guess a girl, in part because of that hair band which I haven't noted on a boy before. I notice there is no part in the hair, but am unsure of the gender connotations. The big question I have here is what are the gender connotations to wearing a jacket and waistcoats with buttons. That looks boyish to me. It clearly is not a dress, but a kind of skirted suit. But looks at the flounces on the skirt, that looks girlish.

Ohio boy (possibly 1870s)

This cabinet portrait is a tough one. All we know for sure is that the studio is Winters in Paulding, Ohio. Every thing else has to be deduced from the image. The unidentified child looks to be about 7-8 years old. He or she certainly looks to be a boy. This is not always easy to tell with younger childre. Some girls look like boys and sometimes had short hair. Both the face nd hair cut here loosk very boyish. As to the date, this is also unclear. The mount type here looks like it could be the 1870s, but we are noy at all sure. The elaborate background setting suggest to us that it is not the 1860s. WE believe the studio setting could be either the 1870s or 80s. We belive the curtain suggsts the 70s. Curtains were widely used by studios in the 60s and 70s, but less so in the 80s. We are not at all positive about this and welcome reader assessments. The dress has a high collar with some kind of white collar worn under underneath. We are not sure how to describe the dress, we might call it a jacketed dress with an elaborate button front. There seems to a round pin at the throat as well as a pendant of some kind. Note the horizonttal lined front goving the appearance of a cut-away jacket. We are not sure if there is a term for this stylistic dvice. The hem line is at mid-calf. An adult women would have a hem line covering the ankles. Unfortunately the portrair is not dated and We are also not sure about the chronology of this style dress, perhaps readers will have some idea.

The 1880s


Indiana Boy (1880s)

This unidentified portrait was taken in Marion Indiana (figure 1). It is undated, but we would gues was taken in the 1880s. The child looks rather like a girl, but for several reasons we believe the child is a boy. Ringlets like this were common for boys, perhaps more common than for girls. The lace collar was also commonly worn by boys. In addition, the plain styling of the dress, the stance, and the whip all seem to suggest the child is a boy

Arthur N. Taylor (1880s)

Here we have a cabinent portrait of Arthur N. Taylor. The portrait was taken by the R.B. Lewis Studios in Wood Square, Hudson, Massachusetts. On the reverse they claim "Graceful posing, artistic lighting ... cloudy weather no objection". It is undated, but we would guess was taken in the early 1880s. He is dressed in a fancy pleated dress with a wide belt. The dress is decorated with a lace cuffs and collar. The floppy bow is relativdly small. He was photographed with a stick. I think it is too slender to be a walking stick, so it may be some kind of riding crop? Alongside him is a little toy cart with a tin pail in it. We do not know if these are studio props or items Arthur brought with him.

Iowa Boy (1880s)

As with many old photographs, the provinance has often been lost. Here is an old cabinet portrait of a girl and boy. The boy like his sister wears a white or light-colored dress. The portrait was taken by J. R. Tewksbury Front Street Fort Madison, Iowa. An inscription on the back in pencil reads, "Tom and Mary Ann". This suggests that they are both childern presumably brother and older sister and not mother and son. This portrait is a standard cabinent card, measuring roughly 4x6 inches. The somewhat faded image does not allow to make out much detail about the dresses other than they are a light color. They appear to be similar although not identical. The neck treatment for example varies somewhat. Both children wear corsages, although only Tom seems to wear a necklace. Mary Ann appears to have a choaker. The pose suggests that the two are very close to each other. The image is not dated, but given the dress styles and photographic style we would guess that it was was taken in the 1880s. From the pose and Tom's expression, there is no reason to think that Tom minds still wearing dresses, but of course there is no wau of really knowing. Even in the 1880s a boy of 10 still wearing dresses was unusual, but not unknown as so much was left to the mothers's discretion. Although he wears a dress, Tom's hair has been cut boyishly short. Here too there variations among families. Some cut a boy's hair before he was breaches, some at the time of breaching, and others at breaching.

New Jersey Boy (1880s)

Frank Schoonover was a famous illustrater in the Golden Age of Illustration. In the short autobiography included in a book, he talks about his youth and how much he loved the outdoors, spending much of his time in the woods, walking along streams and fishing. However, in spite of this, he had long hair about the sme time that Fauntleroy curls came in vogue and least on some occasions wore dresses.

The 1890s


Freddy Quinn (1890s)

Here we have a cabinent portrait of Feddy Quinn with his cherished little dog. The portrait is not datedm but we would guess was taken in the 1890s. The back of the card reads "Freddy Quinn with dog he called 'My Friend'". The portrait was taken by J.W. Sires out in South Oil City, Pennsylvania. We know nothing about Freddie except thsat he was from Oil City. He looks to us to be about 4-5 years old. His little pooch certainly looks like a great little dog. The two seem very close indeed. Freddie has shoulder-length ringlet curls. The hair is not as neatly done as many boys we have noted wearing ringlet curls. He wears a rather long and very plain dress with a decorative pin-on lace collar. There is very little decoration or detailing other than the lace collar. It is a dark color, but I am not sure about the color. It does not look like black.

Unidentified Family (1890s)

Unfortunalely we have no information about this unidentified American family. It is also undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1890s. The early 1900s is possible, but the 1890s seems more likely to us. The portrait has a white border which might help date it. The children lool to be about 2-8 years old. We do not know who the children are, but surely they are a sister and two brothers. It is possible of course that the child on the right is a girl with short hair. We think that this is unlikely, however, because a mother would be unlikely to do one girl with long hair and a hair bow and the other with short hair. This is especially true because the older child is the one with short hair. Notice how the younger child has his hair done like his older brother. The children all look to be wearing very frilly white smocks. Usually smocks were a more utilitarian garment. Perhaps the garments are better described as summer frocks. The older boy looks a bit old to still be wearing frocks. Many mothers at the time liked to address the children in identical outfits. They are dressed alike except that the older chilren wear black long stockings and the younger boy short white socks.







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Created: 5:08 AM 1/3/2005
Last updated: 5:10 AM 11/30/2012