Figure--This class portrait was taken at the Camvert School in Baltimore. It is indated, but from the clothing we can tell it was taken at the turn of the 20th century, probably around 1900-05. It has been colorized. Notice the sailor suits with bloomer knickers and the Norfolk suits with knee pants. A reader comments, "The yellow suit of the boy in front seems to be the wrong color, although there seem to have been yellow tunic suits. We would guess it might have been light blue or some other pale shade, possibly ecru or beige. The long black stockings were standard for the decade of course, but by 1910 many boys were wearing knickers."

This class portrait was taken at the Calvert School in Baltimore. It is indated, but from the clothing we can tell it was taken at the turn of the 20th century, probably around 1900-05. It has been colorized. A reader writes, "Notice the sailor suits with bloomer knickers and the Norfolk suits with knee pants. The yellow suit of the boy in front seems to be the wrong color, although there seem to have been yellow tunic suits. We would guess it might have been light blue or some other pale shade, possibly ecru or beige. The long black stockings were standard for the decade of course, but by 1910 many boys were wearing knickers."

Colorization Accuracy

We notice a variety of colors in these tinted portraits. Some look garish and unrealistc with color just spread over a garment or textile. Other portraits are much more carefully done and look realistic. The colors in some of these tinted portrait look plausible in these photgraphs, but we are not sure how the color information was conveyed to the painter who would have done his or her work long the subjects had left the studio. This same color tinting or painting process was also used on a much larger scale to produce commercial postcards. Here the colors applied often had nothing to do with the colors of the clothes the children wore. We think the portrait tinting may have been more accurate. We suspect that customers would have wanted their portraits to look something like their actual clothes, but we can notnot yet confirm this with period sources. It is of course important to HBC because the tinted photographs potentially offer information on the color of clothes worn in the 19th and early 20th century.

Calvert Portrait

The colorization here is interesting. It seems unlikely that the photographer would have bothered to note the colors involved. It was probably ordered by the mother of one of the boys. She would hasve been unlikely to know what all the children wore, except for her son.

Sailor Suits

An unusual number of boys are wearing sailor suits, we suspect a social class indicator. It has been colorized. Notice the sailor suits with bloomer knickers and the Norfolk suits with knee pants. The colors used for the most part seem reasonable, lots of blues, browns, and greys.

Yellow

We are less sure about the yellow sailor suit. A reader comments, "The yellow suit of the boy in front may be the wrong color, although there seem to have been yellow tunic suits. We would guess it might have been light blue or some other pale shade, possibly ecru or beige. The long black stockings were standard for the decade of course, but by 1910 many boys were wearing knickers."

Reader Comment

A reader writes, "I am uncertain that the yellow sailor suit is the wrong color. It is possible that there were regional differences and in Baltimore that color may have been acceptable. I remember when I first started working; my first job was with a national company. I was in Boston and someone was called in from the South, I think Carolinas. It was in the summer and the fellow was wearing a seersucker suit, the managing partner was furious that someone could show up to work in such an inappropriate outfit. At that time, the early 1980s, New York was even dressier than Boston and apparently those regional errors still occurred. In the 1900s where communication was much more difficult, I would not be surprised that regional differences included yellow sailor suits and the regions could be metropolitan areas and rural areas which would mean the United States was much more varied then."

Yellow Outfits

We would not rule yellow out. We have not, however, I have not see yellow mentioned in catalogs. There ia a famouu Roosevelt family picture which in colorized with Quintin wearing a yellow tunic suit. You would think with the first family there would be some attempt at color accuracy. That said, we have seen Quintin's tunic depicted as a pink suit. We note a boy wearing a yellow outfit in a 1918 Lux ad.

Confirmation

With a colorized photograph like this, we can not accept it as definitive evidence. Given that the other suits are done rather accurately, you might think that the yellow woukld also be an accurate depiction. It is not, however, definitive. We would like to see some definitive confirmation in catalogs r vintage clothing.

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Created: 6:55 AM 2/4/2010
Last updated: 6:55 AM 2/4/2010