Figure 17.--HBC is not sure about this image. The date is about 1870. Certainly the hair style suggests a girl. However the child's outfit is rather plain and looks more like a kilt suit that a boy would have worn. Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

Many of the images in this web site have been acquired with out the important details on who the people are and where and when the photographs were taken. Often we are forced to deduce the date from the style rather than use the date to follow style trends. Some of you have forwarded information and asked if I have any insights. In the case of children in dresses it is often difficult to determine gender.

Here are some difficult images I have encountered. Please let me know if you have any insights or thoughts.

Figure 18.--This photograph is American, probably taken in the 1910s. It looks like three brothers and their sister. A HBC reader, however, believes that the younger sister may have also been a boy. Click on the image for a detailed asessment.

Figure 19.--An Australian reader contributed this image to HBC. She believes that the younger child might be a boy and dates the image to the 1890s. Notice the girl's central part. Click on the image for a more detailed iscussion.

Figure 20.--HBC has found this a difficult image to assess. The child in the Fauntleroy suit is definitely a boy. The older childin the sailor suit i more difficult to assess. The portrait was probably taken in the 1890s. Click on the image for a more detailed iscussion.

Figure 21.--This undated image was taken in Berlin, probably in the 1900s, certainly before World War I. At first examination it looks like a girl, indicating that German girls also wore tunics. HBC is not, however, positive that it is a girl. Click on the omage for a fuller discussion.

Figure 22.--We are unsure about this unidentified image. At first I thought the portrait was French, but have conclude that it is German. At first glance the child appears to be a girl. Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

Figure 23.--HBC has found this a difficult image to assess. The child's outfit looks much like a boys' kilt suit. There are no props, but there are ome indicators that the child may be a girl. Boys at the time sometimes had ringlet curls, but the center parts with ringlets were less common for boys. Click on the image for a more detailed iscussion.

Figure 24.--Here we see a wonderful American Daguerreotype. It is undated and unidentified. We wouild guess that it was taken in the early 1860s, but that is only a rough approximation. We are also unsure about the child's gender. On images like this are general approach is to assume that it is a girl unless some aspect of the portrait suggests that it is a boy. Thus we would tend to assume that the child here is a girl, although we are not at all sure about that.