Left to right:
Dress, c. 1905
Cotton mull, lace, silk satin ribbon
American
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Patton 1972.c.559.A-B
Child's Dress, c. 1905
Cotton, lace, embroidery
American
Lent by Mrs. George Ullman L.27.2000
Boy's " Little Lord Fauntleroy" Suit, c. 1900
Cotton velveteen, silk, metal buttons
American
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Bell 1968.c.227.A-B
Girl's Dress, c. 1905
Cotton, embroidery, lace
American
Gift of an anonymous donor 00.00.FD.4
An immaculately dressed wife and children were visible symbols of a man's success at the turn of the twentieth century. An upper-class women managed the good running order of their home with the assistance of nannies, maids, cooks, and butlers, all worked under her supervision to maintain proper standards for the family. Here, the delicate batiste fabric and lace of the woman’s dress assure that she is not directly involved in any childcare or cleaning task.
The children are appropriately dressed according to their age and sex. Small girls and boys customarily wore dresses until the age of four or five, at which time boys would have gotten their first masculine haircut and worn short pants. It is thus impossible to tell the sex of the wearer of this child’s dress from this object alone. The full skirt of a dress allowed for easy access when changing diapers.
The cavalier-style Little Lord Fauntleroy suit was hugely popular with Victorian mothers during the years 1887-90, but hugely unpopular with the little boys ages four to seven who were made to wear this dress–up uniform. The fact that Cedric Errol, Lord Fauntleroy, was played by a girl in the 1880s stage production did not help the already effeminately styled suit gain acceptance among young boys. The novel, Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett was first published as a series in St. Nicolas, a children's magazine, in 1886. That same year it was issued in book form. By 1893, the book was so popular that it was in nearly three-quarters of American libraries. Mothers liked the story's moral lessons and the portrayal of Lord Fauntleroy's devotion to his mother.
Girls were dressed in replicas of the styles for adult females until the end of the nineteenth century. A new trend is evident in the girl’s dress here, which bears little resemblance to her mother’s, which has a tightly constricted waistline and bust; its loose style derives from the development of childhood education and health reform. Delicate white cotton dresses like this one reflects the family's upper class stature, for washing and ironing it would have required hours of the maid's time.
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