Figure 1.--This English family portrait shows three of the five children of an unidentified family. They look to be about 6-12 yars old. There is no accompanying information except the names of these hree children: Eilen, Freddie, and Eliza. We believe the portrait was taken in the 1880s, pobanly he early-80s, in part because of a colored mount. As the two portrats we have are cabinet cards, we know that that they were taken in Kent, either Herne Bay or Faversham. The studio was Tho. Barns both towns. The child at the uppr right looks like a boy, but must be a girl. We know that because a boy at this age would have been breachd. Also a boy would not be wearing the same dress as his sister, especially at this age. And note the younger broher who has been breachd. He wears a Norfolk Suit with a Peer Pan collar.

The gender of children in 19th century siingle portraits are in many instanes difficult to assess because younger children often do no exhibit the facial characterisic of older youth associated with gender. We focus on he19th century because photography was only invented in the 19th century--1839. And we only begin to see large numbers of images in the 1860s. Younger boys in 19th century photographs might wear dresses and other skirted garments and girls might have short hair. This all makes it impossible to use many of the single images which do not identify the subject tricky to work with. Family images often provide important clues that help us figure out who is who. We will archive some family images here and disccus the gender issues involved in these old photographs. We have a section on English families. Here we archive family images with gender issues. After the turn of the 20th century, the convention of dressing younger boys in dresses rapdly disppeared making it much easierr to determine gender. And gender based hair syles become increasinly pononcd, especially in he first half of the 20h century.

Herne Bay/Faversham Family Portrait (1880s)

This English family portrait shows he three children of an unidentified family (figure 1). There is no accompanying information. We believe the portrait was taken in the 1880s, in part because of the colored mount. As it is a cabinet card portrait, we know wehere the studio was located. The studio had two locations. One was taken in Herne Bay, along the northern shore of Kent near Canterbury. Herne Bay thanks in part to the growing rail system was becoming a beach resort. The children, however, do not seem to be wearing resort clothing, but ordinary clothing at the time. The stocking caps may be an exception. There was also a studio in Favershsam, a market town close toHerne Bay. There are five children, probably about 3-14 year old. Age estimates can be tricky. But biological limits on the periods between children help us with age estimates when we have a family portrait. The portrait here shows three of the children (figure 1). We have a second potrait with all five children. The three older children in the back row are all girls. With single portraits we might have guessed he girl in he center could have been a by, but since they are all dressed alike, but there is no doubt that they are all girls. Note their center hair parts. The fact that the younger children in front are dressed differently suggests that they are boys. The child at he left could be a girl, there is nothing about his dress suggesting that he is a boy, but if he was a girl, surely he would be dressed like his sisters. We would guess hat he is 5 years old. Note he does not have a center part. This by the 80s was getting close to the time that most boys were breached so gender is an open question. The younger child is definitely a boy wearing a sailor-styled kilt suit.

Created: 10:31 AM 2/17/2025
Last updated: 10:31 AM 2/17/2025