Image: Woman with Glasses

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1900

Subject: Portrait bust of a woman

Location: Unknown

Dress:  Her clothing is barely visible, but I see a hint of texture around her collarbone area that looks like it could be embroidery.  Something like eyelet, perhaps.  Her high standing collar is probably supported inside with tiny bones of whalebone or zig-zagged wire.

Accessories:  There is a tiny brooch at her throat.  Unusually, she is wearing glasses.  I don’t know if the dearth of images of women wearing glasses is because few women wore them or because most took them off for their photograph.  But these are adorable- wire rimmed and oval shaped.

Hair:  Her hair is center parted and probably combed over a pad of some kind.  Her hair has a somewhat awkward shape, but picture it with one of the magnificent hats of the period and you will understand the reason for it.

Cabinet Card: Young Woman from Brooklyn, 1890s

Cabinet Card: Young Woman from Brooklyn, 1890s

Backmark: None (Front reads “Ehm Artist 708 & 710 Broadway, Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Date: c. 1892-1896

Subject: Portrait Bust of a Young Woman

Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dress: This is a beautiful example of the popular dress style c. 1895.  The dress is made of a light figured cotton or silk printed with floral sprays.  The sleeves are very full, with the fullness extending past the elbows.  The sleeves may be held out with separate sleeves filled with down or shaped by whalebones, or they may be puffed with pleatings of crinoline.   The extra-wide collar of eyelet embroidery extends to the end of the shoulder point and is typical of the mid 1890s.

The bodice is drawn tightly into a waistband at the true waistline and covered with a wide ribbon belt.  This bodice shape is particular to the early-to-mid 1890s.

Ribbon bows draw attention to the shoulders and the center-front neck.

Hair: This young woman still wears her hair in an adolescent style; slightly curled at the sides and center-parted as was typical of an adult style, but drawn back into a low ponytail tied with a ribbon.  Adult women would have confined their hair in a bun at the back of the head.

Tintype: c. 1870, young woman in sheer dress

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1870

Subject: Seated young woman

Location: Unknown

Note: I’m really not sure about the date of this tintype. This style of ruched bodice was especially popular from around 1865 through the early 70s, and the dropped armscye suggests a date closer to 1865, but loose hair is an 1870s fad, as far as I know. I’d appreciate any leads on comparanda to date this better.

Dress: This young woman wears a sheer dress over an opaque underdress. The bodice is shirred over tiny cords, and appears to be only on a yoke, ending at about bust level. The sleeves are long and full, coming from a dropped armscye and ending in a ruffle at the cuff. There appears to be decorative piping (tubes of fabric applied to the surface, not filled with cord) at the front yoke, armsyce, and cuffs. The jewel neckline of the dress is finished with a dark lace frill and a bow with flowers of some sort- possibly wax buds.

The underdress is probably entirely separate from the outer dress, and made of silk taffeta. I have seen several extant examples of this kind of dress, but never in any color but white. The ensemble she wears may be black, or another color that photographed dark, such as red. All of the extant dresses I have seen have been plain white organdy, but because this one is colored it may be silk.

Her skirt is not visible, but based on originals I have seen it probably consists of a skirt with a small train, and an overskirt which has been gathered up to form a polonaise, bustling out at the back.  She would wear a cage crinoline with a small bustle pad in back

Jewelry: She wears a black choker pinned at the throat with a metal brooch.

Hair: Her hair is worn faddishly loose and side-parted. To the contemporary viewer, she probably would have looked rakish in the free-spirited way that young women often do. When worn by women, the side-part had for decades prior carried an association with radical ideas and masculine bravura. Loose curls, likewise, signified a free spirit, compared to the tight, slicked-back buns that were worn since the late 1830s.

CDV: Young Woman in Coat with Buttons, c. 1864-66

CDV: Young Woman in Coat with Buttons, c. 1864-66

CDV: Young Woman in Coat with Buttons, backmark

Backmark: 2-cent Proprietary stamp, blue.  ” R.A. Lord   164 Chatham Street (158 Old Number) New York” (more of those images here and here)

Date: c. 1864-1866

Subject: Seated Young Woman

Location: New York, NY

This young woman wears a paletot-style coat, probably of solid-colored wool.  The coat has dropped armscyes, loose sleeves (in the style generally known as coat sleeves, i.e. two piece, shaped sleeves).  The body of the coat is loose all over and, when standing, would provide a smooth line from her shoulders to the hem of her full skirt.  This obscuring of the waistline was the most common silhouette for outerwear throughout the Victorian era.

The coat reaches about hip-level, and closes up center front with three sets of buttons.  The buttons probably fasten with a cord loop. The coat has a narrow, rectangular collar and what appears to be a brooch pinned at the throat.

The coat is decorated with fabric tabs and buttons at the shoulder and cuff, giving it just a hint of the military style popular with women during the war years.

Her jewelry is a pair of hoop earrings and a ring on her finger.  She is holding something in her hand, but I cannot make out what it is.  A tiny miser’s purse, perhaps?

Hair:  Her hair is typical of that worn by young women towards the end of the war.  It is oiled (note the comb marks), center parted, and the front sections rolled away from the face.  The roll begins right at her part, rather than down near her temples, which is a feature of late-war style.   Her front rolled hair is combed back and down to meet her back hair, which is coiled into a low-lying bun or knot.

CDV: Young Woman with Rolled Hair, c. 1862-64

CDV: Young Woman with Rolled Hair, c. 1862-64

CDV: Young Woman with Rolled Hair, backmark

Backmark: “D.K. Jewell Artist, Augusta, Me.”

Date: c. 1862-64

Subject: Portrait of a Young Woman

Location: Augusta, Maine

Dress: Fabric is striped and barred (dark vertical stripe, thin light “bars”, or widowpane) may be wool, cotton, silk, or a mix.

The piping at the neckline is visible. Most, if not all, round (jewel) necklines were piped in this period.

She wears a short standing white collar and a brooch at center front/neck. Decorative buttons down center front are just barely visible.

Hair: The three-quarter pose allows us to see a wonderful hairstyle. Center parted and oiled (note the comb lines just below her part); the front hair is combed away from the face over a wide “rat,” making the width extend from just above her temples t o the nape of her neck.

The front hair continues in a thick roll (no doubt augmented by a rat or false hair) across her neck, with the ends integrated into the back coil or tucked beneath is.

Her back hair is combed into a low-lying coil. Note the prominent levels(coils sticking out, with the last coil being the farthest out); this is typical of back coils from the 1840s through the middle of the 1860s. The back hair was typically held in place with a comb, usually ornamental as well as functional. Unfortunately, her comb is not visible. She may also be using hairpins to help hold everything in place.

CDV: Girl with Hairnet, c. 1862-64

CDV: Girl with Hairnet, c. 1862-64

CDV: Girl with Hairnet, backmark

Backmark: “E.G. Gordon, Photographer, Williams’ Block, Cor. Madison & Elm Sts., Skowhegan, ME. The Negative from which this Picture was taken is preserved, and duplicates can be furnished at any time.”

Date: c. 1862-64

Subject: Profile of a Girl

Location: Skowhegan, Maine

Dress: This girl’s dress has small, decorative buttons on the center-front opening. She wears a short white standing collar pined or basted to the neckline of her bodice, and a brooch at the center.

Hair: Her hair is center-parted and combed straight back and down from the face, behind her ears, and into a mass of braids pinned up at the nape of her neck. A fine, plain hairnet helps keep it tidy.

Girls wore their hair short (in what we would now call a bob) until early adolescence, when they began to grow it out and pin it up in the same fashion as women. The large amount of hair this girl has indicates that she may be using false braids to supplement her still-growing locks.

Tintype: Girl in Hat

Tintype: Girl in Hat, c. 1865-70

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1865-70

Subject: Young Woman

Location: Unknown

Dress:  This young woman wears a bodice trimmed with ribbon in a large geometric pattern.  It is unclear whether the buttons are functional or decorative.  She wears a ribbon necktie that is either pinned to a high collar or forms the collar itself.  She wears no visible jewelry.

Hat & Hair:  Her hair is pulled straight back from her face and arranged in a vertical oval-shaped roll at the back of her head.  She wears a stylish hat, probably made of straw or woven straw and horsehair.  The low, flat-topped crown sits straight on her head, while the narrow brim comes to a point in front just over her eyebrows.  The hat is trimmed with ribbon and silk or wax flowers on the side.

CDV: Young Italian Woman

CDV: Young Italian Woman, c. 1866-68

CDV: Young Italian Woman, backmark

Backmark: “Studio Fotografico Goriziano F. Troester Cotrada S. Giovani No. 14”

Date: c. 1866-68

Subject: Young Woman

Location: Italy

Dress: Unfortunately, years of fading and a wash of watercolor paint have obscured most of the details of this image.  Her dress is a one-piece composed of bodice and attached skirt.  The entire dress is tinted green with watercolors. The bodice is gathered, with a center-front opening and buttons.  The bodice is trimmed with U-shaped ruching.  The skirt reaches to within inches of the floor, and is trimmed about a foot from the hem with two narrow stripes.

She wears a white apron, which is an unusual accessory in photographs of this era.  Possibly it was a local convention.  When Americans are photoraphed in aprons, the aprons are almost always the decorative silk kind.

She wears a relatively small cage crinoline, a size typical for the latter half of the 1860s.

Hair:  Her hair looks like it is brushed straight back and bound up, but it is difficult to tell because of the poor quality of the photograph.

CDV: Hairnet

CDV: Girl in Hairnet, c. 1860-64

Backmark

Backmark: F.S. Keeler, S.E. Corner Eighth & Market Streets, Philada. This Negative will be preserved for One Year. No. 637?

Subject: Young woman

Hair:
This woman’s dark, straight hair is parted in the center and confined in back in a low-lying bun or twist. Her hair is covered by a hairnet covered with tiny beads at every join.
It is clear from the mass of hair at the sides that she is using fake hair. The width begins about an inch above and directly on top of her ears. The hair appear to be rolled back (away from the face) into a very thick braid or series of rolls. Note how far down her neck her hair rolls lie.

Dress:
Her dress appears to be a barred (what we now call ‘widowpane’) silk. She wears a white collar basted in, about 1″ wide at the fronts with rounded edges. There is a brooch pinned where the collar meets at CF. There are decorative buttons down the front placket opening.

Questions:

– What is the lacey type white thing showing at the bottom of her hair? Is it her collar sticking up, or something else?

CDV: Circassian Woman

"Circassian Beauty", late 1860s-80s

Chas. Eisenmann, Photographer, 229 Bowery, New York

Backmark: “Chas. Eisenmann, Photographer, 229 Bowery, New York. Photographs taken instantaneously. This Picture is printed by Electric Light.”

Date: Late 1860s-80s

Subject: Young woman in a parlor setting

Location: New York, NY

As I am commenting only on dress in this blog, you may read more about Circassian Beauties elsewhere.

This woman wears a dress of velvet reaching just below the knee. Women wore this length skirt only for athletics or on the stage, so we can safely assume this woman worked at the latter. The long sleeves with open cuff (known now as “modified pagoda”) are trimmed with lace, matching the hem of her basque bodice and skirt. The lace and the hem of her drawers is tinted pink in the original CDV.

She wears light-colored stockings and ankle boots with the short heels popular from the 1870s on.

Questions: I am uncertain about the date of this image. That her sleeve and skirt shape seem particularly 1870s and the image is a CDV, not a cabinet card, which suggests an earlier date, but the backmark reads ” This Picture is printed by Electric Light”. Do any of you have any ideas about this?

I am not as well-versed about this period as about others, so I invite you to comment below with additional description and fun facts.