Children Fashions of the Past by: Alison Mager

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For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the standard portrait of a child, taken in a photographic studio, might easily have been a painting-pose, dress, lighting, background, a stiff formality masking restlessness. The difference, of course, lay in economics-almost all families could afford a photo of the children with prints for the relatives. Styles in dress and photography have since changed-but there remains a photographic record of children as they were-or perhaps as parents and photographers imagined them.

In the first collection ever devoted to this once popular art form, 165 characteristic studio photographs portray American and European children from the 1860's to the 1920's. A few of the shots come from famous studios (Joseph Albert in Munich; Mora in New York City) but most are the work of anonymous or little-known photographers from all parts of this country and from England, Germany, the AustroHungarian Empire, France, and even Argentina. Many of these shots by 137 photographers reflect centuries-old concepts of the child as miniature adult. Various young gentlemen appear in their best sailor suits; one poses with pince-nez, pipe, and newspaper, another with bowler hat and watch chain. Tiny girls, in ruffles and bonnets, decorously hold their brothers' hands. The entire range of youthful fashion is displayed and preserved in front of mock beach scenes, fishing boats, rock formations and pastoral views.

What becomes clear is that, alongside their interest as documents of an era, these pictures often transcend the merely professional and become, in terms of composition, lighting, and tone, minor works of art. This album recalls a time when the idea of childhood was in its infancy, and when studio photographers were the portrait artists of the people.

Original Dover (1978) publication. 165 photographs. Introduction. List and location of photographers. 89pp. 8% x 9'/4. Paperbound.