Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Photo Number 441

This is a cabinet card that was found in the back of the Nettie Parks Album. 

Extra Child with Flowers Such a darling little girl! ( Her hair is parted in the center and it is curled!)   Her dress is showing the huge “leg of mutton” sleeves with the ”wings” on the shoulders that were popular in ladies blouses around 1895.  The information on the Photographer O E Flaten of Moorhead and Halstad Minnesota and Gardner ND shows that he was at these three studios from 1887 to 1902.   So I will date this photo at the year 1895.

Thanks for stopping by, do come again:)

11 comments:

  1. It would probably be more appropriate to call them "Shoulder of Mutton" sleeves.

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  2. Did they play football in 1895? :)

    Hmm... photo taken in Minnesota and North Dakota? Who could this be? Perhaps this is a clue as to how the photo album got to Minnesota.

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  3. adorable child. Resembles my cousin... yes, the sleeves do seem a bid dramatic but the dress is quite feminine and I love its petitness and the high waist.
    I notice that most white dresses are completed by a girl's black stockings and black shoes. Was this to draw attention away from the legs?

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  4. I can only imagine the primping and ironing the day of this photo.

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  5. Iggy, I was thinking similar thoughts when I saw the photographer's location. I haven't been checking in quite as much as usual(in a huge time crunch), so was wondering if there had been any other MN photographers. Laurisa, my thought on the black shoes & stockings is they probably only had one pair of shoes & maybe a couple stockings, and black would not show as much dirt (I'm just guessing). Perhaps a really nice dress was even passed around to cousins and friends for photos. It would make sense to me, anyway.;-) ~Abra

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  6. Abra - you are right about the clothes. Stockings were made by hand or purchased from a catalog, and while there definitely were patterned stockings available, the reality was that kids got dirty and black or brown was most practical. Nice dresses absolutely were passed around family and altered for changing fashions. This particular dress models the "little adult" child rearing that was popular at the end of the Victorian era. The fashions were styled off adult styles and children were expected to behave in a similar manner.

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  7. Abra, This is the first and only Minnesota Photo in this group. In my remaining photos I have one from Dakota Territory ..one from Illinois and one from Wisconsin that we have not looked at yet...oh and one taken in Cuba:)

    Thanks Norkio for the info on the stockings and on the dress:)

    Iggy someone does live in North Dakota..but I am not sure how it fits..I will put that postcard up tomorrow:)

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  8. Isn't it nice to see a child NEXT to a chair instead of standing ON the chair. That pretty wicker chair would have been of no use. Still, it would have made an interesting photo if the child was standing there stuck down on the floor with the chair around them. It would be a category worth collecting. Don't think there are many out there.

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Hi, Thanks for the comments, your input on these old photos is appreciated! English only please! All comments will be moderated! Connie