Figure 1.-- This tin-type prtait is unidentugied and undated, but we would guess was taken about 1890. Tun types declined in popularity since mid-century, largely because of the sharper images prooduced with the albumen process and cabinent, but they were atill made at a carnivals and vacation area arcades--in this case a beach resort. This nof course is a studio backdrop, but the studio would have been located at a beach resprt. Notice the shovel and bucket, still popular for youngerr children at the beach. This boy looks to be about 5-years old and rars a kilt suit with a wiude white collar and floppy bow.
Two factors seem to have affected age distribution in the 1890s. First of all was American prosperity, meaninhg that more familirs than ever before could afford to dress their children well. As a result we find more examoples at each age group. Second, for some reason American mothers about mid-decade began to chose skirted garments, especially dresses less commonly than before, espdcially for older boys. Thus we begin to see fewer boys , especially 5 and6 year olds wearing kilt suits. This trend would be especially apparent in the 1890s. We are not sure just what caused this shift. The popularity of Fauntleroy styling, but we are not at all sure. We notice boys weaing kilt suits from about 2-years of age, but mostly we see boys beginning to wear these kilt sduits in the 1890s at about 3 years of age. The boy here looks to be about 3 years old (figure 1). The 1890s was the last deade that we see really large number of boys wearing kilt suits. We are still wotking on the age range, but we still see 5-year olds wearing kilt suits during the 1890s, at least in the early-90s. We have not found mny 6-year olds, but 4 and 5 year olds were fairly common, Kilt suits were far less commn by the end of the decade and we mostly see younger boys wearing them. The mid-90s eemd to have been a major tutning point in the fashion of younger boys wearing skirted garmets. This is difficult to precisely identify, but there is no nsoubt that the kilt suit fashion had significantly declined by the 1900s decade.
