Unidentified Family: Beach Outing (1910s)


Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows two unidentified boys we are guessing with their mother and grandmother. Tere is no provinance on th back. The snapshot is undated, but the long dresses suggest the 1910s to us or at least the very early-20. The boys look to be about 12-13 years old. They look to be on a beach outing which probably explains why the boys are not wearing suit jackets.

This family snapshot shows two unidentified boys we are guessing with their mother and grandmother. Tere is no provinance on th back. The snapshot is undated, but the long dresses suggest the 1910s to us or at least the very early-20. The boys look to be about 12-13 years old. They look to be on a beach outing which probably explains why the boys are not wearing suit jackets. Also notice the different lengths. A reader writes, " If you notice, it appears to me that the older boy is wearing his knickers above the knee and the younger one is wearing what were called Golf or plus four knickers which were worn below the knees (sometimes more like the calf). What are your thoughts?" This is a little tricky. One boy is taller than the other, but I am not sure the taller boy is the older, he has a younger looking face than the shorter boy. The boys are dressed similarly with two exceptions. The shoter boy has longer knickers and high-top shoes while the taller boy has shorter knickers and low-cut oxfords. I don't think Plus-Fours means length, but rather more material meaning that thay were not form fitting but kind of billowed out. Here it seems to us that both knickers are about the same in terms of bagginest. The difference is entirely length. We are not sure why there would be the difference in the same family. I don't think it is how the boy is wearingthem, but the kbickers here are made differently. Boys could adjust how they wore knickers somewhat, below or above the knee. But here there is a substabtial difference in the length of the jnickers, nit with how the boys chose to wear them. As far as we know, stores did not stock variously cut knickers. They were presumably bought at different times. Another factor could be that one boy has brand new knickers they fit long and the other has older knickers that he may have outgrown so they look smaller. We are also not sure about the shoes. They may have been purchased at different times. We are not sure why different types of shoes were chosen. It was at ta time that low-cut shoes had begun to replace high-tops.







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Created: 10:34 AM 8/21/2017
Last edited: 10:35 AM 8/21/2017