Figure 1.--We have no information associated with this cabinet card other than the standard studio. The beige color of the card stock, however, suggests that t was taken in the 1900s decade. Cabinet cvards dominaed the second half of the 19th centuty and we still see quite a few in the 1900s decade. We cant's see too clearly what the boy is wearing, but his suit does have a button front jacket and knee pants. His Fauntleroy blouse has a wide white collar and matching wrist cuffs. His hair is done in ringlets. He has a rather oldish face, probably 5 years old, perhaps 6 years. The studio is C.O. Nickols in Villisca, Iowa, a very small town in the southwest part of the state, almostcertainly a farming town. One might guess the embodiment of 'The Music Man's River City. The studio information with these cabinet cards helps to show that these elaborate Fauntleroy outfits and ringlet curls were not just big city fashions, but worn throughout the country. And Villisca is about as close as yo ncan get to the middle of the country.

The ages of the boys with ringlet curls declined somewhat in the 1900s. A factor here is that boys would not be sent to school with ringlets. And school began at age 6 years. Of course some boys tuned 6 years after school began. Now this situation is not appreciably different than the 1890s because the American public school system was well-established with age 6-year entry levels by the late-19th century. We do see sone boys who look to be about 6 years old with ringlets. This is, however, tricky because so few of the portraits have incriptions with the ages of the children photographed. So we have to estimate ages. Of course estimates are never as reliable as actual ages, but even stated ages can be misleading because the child may have just had his birthday or is about to have one. Now we think we can reasonably estimate ages to about 1 year of error. At these younug ages, a 2 year error is unlikely, but of course we could be wrong and some children look older or younger than they actually are--which cvould be a fctor in mom's decision making. So readers should take all of this into account. Now while the school factor was unchanged in the 1900s, clearly parents atitudes toward ringlets were changing. Here we suspect it was primarily fathers pushing the issue. While it was relatively rare to find 6 year olds still done up in ringlets, there were a few, most of the boys in this cohart were onlyup to about 4 years of age by the the 190os decade. Intetestingly we see more boys with ringlets than still wearing dresses. Just what that meant we are not at all sure.

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Created: 4:34 PM 3/22/2025
Last edited: 4:34 PM 3/22/2025