Friday, October 26, 2012

Fashionable Friday - Girls' Dress Fashions of the 1860's


Yesterday I posted a photograph (CDV) of a very young girl dated between 1864 and 1866.  A reader made a comment about the "off the shoulder" style seeming a little mature for a young girl.  That had me thinking so I did a little digging into my existing stash of photographs and came up with a couple more from the same era of young girls in similar type dresses.  The first photo I believe to have been taken between 1862 and 1863.  The photographer was J. Good, 36 Greene St., Opposite the Post Office, Trenton, N.J.  This little angel with ringlets in her hair, perhaps five or six years old,  is wearing the same style dress and notice her fringed sleeves.  This is one of my favorite photos, I absolutely adore her.

Unidentified Girl from Trenton, NJ
 


The second girl who appears to be a bit older, perhaps ten or eleven,  is also wearing the off-the-shoulder style in a belted, gingham dress.  She also is wearing a necklace, bracelet and ring.  This photograph was taken between 1864 and 1866 as evidenced by the revenue stamp and initialed by the artist "RB."  The photographer's imprint reads "Barcalow, 76 Bowery, NY."  He was Richard Garrison Barcalow (ca 1826 - 1891), a daguerreotypist and photographer in New York as early as 1859.  I believe he had a studio in New York as late as 1889.

Unidentified Girl from NYC
 


I also found these drawings in Peterson's Magazine from 1862 showing that the off-the-shoulder style for young girls was quite popular around that time.

Petersons July 1862
Petersons Sep 1862

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful examples of the off the shoulder fashions:)

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  2. The first little girl is indeed angelic. The mortality rate for small children from this era was very high by our modern standards, I hope that for both girls it was not their last photo.

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  3. I bet girl #1 grew up to be a beauty. I do appreciate learning about fashion and dating photos, so keep 'em coming.

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