- Charles
F. Bracy (Wells River and Fairlee,
Vermont)
- Double
Portrait of a Boy, from Side and
Back
- Cabinet
card, circa 1890
Charles
F. Bracy (1845-1915) was active as a photographer
in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. This card
bears an embossed imprint listing his studios in
Fairlee (where he worked 1889-1902) and Wells River
(1883-1900.)
In
this unusual application of double photography one boy
is shown from both the side and the back, most likely
to fully display his high-fashion hairstyle and
clothing. The velvet Cavalier-style jacket and
knee-britches, combined with a full lace Van Dyke
collar and a frilly blouse, was called a "Fauntleroy
suit." It was inspired by Little Lord Fauntleroy,
a novel by the English-born American author
Frances Hodgson Burnett. First published in 1886,
Fauntleroy went on to sell a million copies in
English and countless others in a dozen different
languages. A stage adaptation , also written by
Burnett, opened in 1888 and took both England and the
United States by storm. Mothers everywhere made or
purchased these suits for their young male offspring.
They did not consider the fashion effeminate despite
the girlish ringlet curls that usually accompanied the
suit. Nor did it seem to concern parents that the
title character of the play was usually portrayed by a
young woman; however, there were occasional cases of
boys sabotaging their suits and at least one report of
a young man who burned down the family barn to show
his sartorial displeasure.
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