Dresses and Kids

[thomasgeorge]

A bit more browsing thru various literature turned up a point I thought might be of some interest-- up to at least the 1890's boys as old as 8 might, at the preference of their mothers, be photographed not in knee length pants but in dresses. Again, look to the part in the hair for gender info if unsure-- If the dress the child is wearing exposes the shoulders, the date of the photo is probably early 1870 or before. Heady stuff, this fashion history! Tom

[Ed_L]

Tom,

I posted this one on another thread. You'll probably remember it. It is my uncle, and the photo was taken about 1912 (probably within 1 year either way).

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=3932

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

You're doing a wonderful job of enlightening us Tom. Keep it up and I won't ever have to search out the info because I will already know it. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Ed's photo is a perfect example of what you are saying. I knew toddlers wore dresses but I didn't figure they still wore them after 4 or 5.
DJ

[thomasgeorge]

Wonderful photo Ed. The bangs help with time period ID and subtle left side part in the hair identifies the gender. The shoes are also interesting--I'll have to do some digging to get more info on them but cusory exam does show differences between them and ones of a decade or so earlier.
DJ; Stay tuned for the Real story on snoods and chignons--almost got the barn full of 'em now--branding begins next week. I'm breaking out the formal branding hoop skirt, so everyone ---take cover--incoming!!! Tom

[NJPatRN]

Can you tell?

Putting little boys in dresses! They sure did.
The attached photo is of some of my family. Can you identify if they be HE or SHE? If anyone's interested, I'll post the answer.

[NJPatRN]

if first I don't suceed....where's the attachment
one more time!

[kathleen]

my guess: 1 boy only, on the right.

beautiful photo. did you have to do much to it?

[Ed_L]

My guess is the one standing in front of the father, and that there is only one boy. This is a fine example of an old family portrait. You can just see the innocence in the faces of the kids. Thanks for sharing that one.

Ed

[thomasgeorge]

Wonderful photo!! I'm guessing that this probably dates 1900-1910ish, the bangs make gender a challenge but from left to right---Boy, boy, girl. Tom

[Doug Nelson]

Heh...the first RetouchPRO Gender Challenge

[NJPatRN]

Part two

:o Here's the same session, different pose.
My purpose for posting these pics is to illustrate that old photos can confuse as well enlighten--regardless of the physical condition of the photo. The "Brothers and Sister" restoration challenge(#9) piqued my curiousity with its name/identification. I wonder if Angel (submitter of the photo) knows the gender of the subjects or is presuming based on appearances.
By the way, I did very little "clean-up" before posting, 5-15 minutes removing specks and scratches.
Pat
(answers Monday, I guess...don't want to spoil it for late comers)

[kathleen]

now i'm wavering. on board exams they always said go with your first answer, so i'll leave well enough alone and await the troof.

what great photos. what a great dress on mom - you can feel the texture. thanks again njp

[DJ Dubovsky]

Pat,
Love the pictures. I guess this gender guessing of old photos is harder than I thought it would be, even after Tom's explaination of how to tell them apart. So here goes, I thought in the first picture it was baby- boy, holding teddy bear - boy and one on right - girl. Now I think I will just say they are all boys.
This is kinda fun. Can't wait to see the answer but I know others would like to probably take a crack at it. Great looking kids no matter what gender they are.
DJ

[NJPatRN]

answer

Tomorrow I have a pretty full schedule, and since anyone can follow the thread and guess before going on, here goes:
two girls and a boy (gold star to Ed). The boy, by the way, happens to be my father who died just last year. My grandmother is holding the baby girl in both of those pics.
In the original pose, my Dad is standing in front of his father, while his older sister--and that's her lamb she's holding DJ (I couldn't tell from this pic, but it's something I know because she held the same lamb in the picure a few years earlier) is in the middle. In the second pose, Dad is up between his parents and his sisters both have a parent's lap.
The year is 1920. A year later, another boy was born and joined the photo sessions. I think the 1921 picture has the girls in "girlier" (new word) dresses--and my Dad got to wear pants!

[NJPatRN]

NOT just for dress-up

In case anyone wonders
It was not just for special/dress-up/Sunday-go-to-meeting that boys wore dresses....as the attached attests. How those whites were kept white beats me!