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.

HBC has found this a difficult image to assess. It is unfortunate that so many old photographs have no information associated with them. this leaves us to only guess about the date and gender involved. This child looks to be about 6 or7 yeats old. Many boys this age would have been breached at this age, but in the 1870s a noy wearing skirted garments at this age was not all tht unusual. The child's outfit looks much like a boys' kilt suit. This was a very common outfit for a boy. The outfit looks much more like a kilt suit than a dress. The kilt-skirt, however, is done somewhat differently than most of the kilt suits we have noted. Those diagonal cross pieces aresomewhat unusual, but we are unsur if thereare any gender connotations involved. This may be because many of the images we have seen are from the 1880s and this looks more like the 1870s. We do not yet have detailed information on 1870s girls clothes, but we have begun to collect some information. 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. This is an unusual ringlet cut. At first glance the child has short hair, but there are quite long ringlets on the child's shoulders. The locket was also less common for a boy. We have noted them on younger boys, but are less common but not unknown on boys this age. The small ruffled collar is not useful in establishing gender, but it helps date the photograph, probably to the late 1870s. We note the child has a kind of lace jabot rather than a bow. We are not sure how to interpret that.