Two Children and a Horse

This photograph was taken by John Spence, who operated a studio on Bridge Street in Musselburgh, Scotland, which is near Edinburgh, from 1880 to 1914. The two children pictured are boys, and they illustrate the custom of dressing small boys in “skirts” and boys over five years of age in knickers or breeches. The smaller boy on the horse wears a jacket with a broad collar and a skirt with a row of pleats at the hem. The pleats echo skirt styles popular among adult women in the 1880s. The older child is dressed in a sailor suit and tam-o-shanter hat popularized by the title character in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book, Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Carte de Visite, 1885-1890