Sunday Best Sitters usually arrived at the photographer’s studio wearing their Sunday best clothes. This suggests that they conspired with the photographer to achieve an idealised image of themselves looking their best.
Boys in Skirts Little boys wore skirts until the age of three to five years when they were dressed in their first pair of trousers. This early rite of passage was known as breeching. The newly breeched child often received pennies from relatives and neighbours. The tradition of boys wearing skirts had largely died out by the late 1920s.
The toy train also helps to confirm that this is a little boy.
This extract is taken from Open University course A173: Start Writing Family History.
The photograph used is Hiram and Lily Broadhurst with
their sons, George and Arthur, 1911. The photographer is unknown. Photo courtesy of: Documentary Photography
Archive, GMCRO, Manchester. Ref: 760/31
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The toy train also helps to confirm that this is a little boy.