19^th Century Boyhood

As boys neared the age of six, they began to identify more strongly with masculine characteristics and tendencies. Where gender played a negligible role in the way boys were treated throughout infancy, by the time they reached childhood they were expected to fulfill the strongly defined role of the “real boy”. Photographs of boys of this age contrived to display the transition from infancy to boyhood through choices in costume, positioning and setting.

Boys had more closely cropped hair, wore trousers, and were often captured outdoors. The world of games and sports outside of the home that boys began to discover played an increasingly important role in their lives—and as they grew, the youth culture of Vermont males developed along with them.

History of American photography

As photography grew in popularity in the late 19^th century, Americans began to document their lives through photographs. From commissioned portraits of family members to impromptu moments captured on camera, photographs began to be produced in large quantities. Among photographs from the 1800’s that endured, an overwhelming number feature children. While they were popular subjects for photographers, children were vastly underrepresented in written accounts of life at the time. Few children kept diaries and even fewer saved childhood journals that survive today. It is therefore difficult to glean an understanding of the lives of boys and girls of the 19^th century from written sources, as historians saw little reason to document youth history.

Photographs, therefore, provide historians today with ample visual information from which we may draw conclusions about childhood in Vermont in the late 1800’s. Because so many American kept photographs of their children as family heirlooms, these primary documents are valuable historical references for contemporary scholars. From these photographs, the American public defines the notion of childhood as it was understood by turn-of-the-century Americans.

Infants

In studying photographs of infants and toddlers in the 19^th century, it is often difficult to discern a child’s gender. Choice of clothing and hairstyle varied little between boys and girls, and a child was typically considered ‘genderless’ for the first few years of his or her life. As a result, the male infants in these photographs may easily be mistaken for girls. With long, light-colored garments and shoulder-length hair, the children appear androgynous. The lines between the two genders became more defined around the age of 6, when boys began to play together outside the home and girls stayed inside to hone domestic skills.

The American idea of childhood and childrearing shifted several times throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Clothing and furniture specifically manufactured for children also changed to match society’s transition into a new era of parenting. In the 1800’s, children’s furniture was designed primarily to contain infants within their world separate from that of adults. Often, the chairs and tables provided for infants were miniature versions of the furniture found in the rest of the home. In photographs of the time, children are often pictured on this type of child-friendly furniture.

A feature unique to photographs of infants is the realism of their facial expressions. While older children could be coaxed into maintaining a look desired by their parents, children such as those seen on this page appear significantly more natural.

Groups

Middle-class 19^th century parents often commissioned family portraits to serve both as status symbols and heirlooms. Photographs of children are particularly abundant in family collections and albums of the 1800’s, and brothers and sisters were regularly assembled to appear in posed pictures. Boys and girls each held positions typical for their gender—the girls were generally seated, while the boys stood behind them gesturing protectively. Children remained relatively expressionless in photos.

This contrasts significantly with today’s photography in which parents encourage their children to “smile at the camera”. Still, because children were more difficult subjects to control than adults, their faces reveal a more realistic look into their personalities than the “mask” often worn by older subjects.

Class pictures also grew increasingly popular as photography became less of a luxury and more of a hobby available to the general public. Amateur photographers took an interest in capturing the everyday lives of American children who spent most of their time in school.

Girls

While photographers captured boys outdoors or engaging in activities deemed appropriate to their gender, girls were more typically photographed while seated. Dressed in petticoats and voluminous dresses, girls resembled miniature women in their costume and serious expressions. Often holding strings of coral, dolls or books in their hands, girls appeared to assume the habits and responsibilities of budding housewives, mimicking the actions of their elders in miniature form.

Pastimes

By the time boys and girls began to play separately, the activities in which they were encouraged to engage were different for each gender. The photographs of children at play from the late 19^th century reflect the gender-specific pastimes of contemporary children. Boys partook in adventurous activities, learning the use of guns and other skills appropriate for young middle-class males. As they spent a great majority of their time outdoors, boys are often pictured on horseback, frozen in hunting poses, or on bicycles.

Inside, girls played together with dolls and learned basic skills in management of the home. Photos of girls at play most often depict the subjects with their favorite dolls, as this object was considered a quintessentially feminine toy. These photographs of children at play display the pastimes that society deemed acceptable at the turn of the century.