Figure 1.--This is a 1892 cabinet portrait of a young boy wearing a white Fauntleroy blouse and knee pabnts along wirh long ringlet curls. The portrait was taken at the Binner Studios in "Pierce City. Missouri. The studio identifification is a little different than the standard 19th century cabinet card. The Boy is identified on the back as "Benny - 1892 - Lis's - Boy". Benny looks to be about 7 years old. He wears daerk ribbed stockings with strap shoes.

U.S. Boys' Ringlet Curl Chronology: The 1890s--Age

Most American boys with ringlet curls in the 1890s tended to be boys up to about 6 years of age, about the age when they began school. A good example is 5 years old Tommy Purcell in 1892. The late-1980s ahd early-90s were the peak of the Fauntleroy craze and we seee quite a large numbers of boys with a wide age range wearing ringlets, especially in the early-90s. This was, however, not always the case. We notice a number of school-age boys wearing ringlets. We suspect for the most part that these were boys from well-to-do families thast were being educated at home with tutors. The American public school system was well-etablished bu the 1890s. And while we may see boys with fancy blouses at school, we do not normally see boys with ringlets at school. While most of the boys with ringlets were the younger boys, we do see some portraits of school age boys with ringlets. They were mostly the younger primsry boys, but we see a few boys even approaching their teens wearing ringlets. Ralph Benton who just turned 12 years of age had his portrait taken wearing ringlet curls with a sailor suit in 1896. Ralph was born in Germany. This seems to be an example of an immigrant family adopting American styles.








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Created: 9:09 AM 11/26/2010
Last edited: 12:12 PM 11/27/2011