a c1890s fashion portrait by
J J Millikin of Toronto
Toronto. … is what our budgie said when it wasn’t irritating our youngest by calling out her name over and over.
In November, 1998 our speaker was Joan Severa. Her topic was “Dating Your Images”. As you can see from the photo at left, in the late 1800s people ‘dressed to the nines’ to have a likeness captured.
An offshoot of this practice formed the subject of Joan’s talk – and book. Fashion in portraits could help date a photograph as fashion changed frequently – especially ladies fashions.
Ev(?) wrote in issue 24-4 the article, “How Fashion Influenced Photography in the 1890s”. The article begins, “The presentation by Joan Severa at the November meeting (see Toronto Notes page 12) in which she outlined the changes of fashion found in photographs, recalled the frontispiece illustration (at left) used in The Canadian Photographic Journal.
“This was at a time when photographic prints were still inserted in each issue as a prime example of the photographic art. In reality it was pure advertising to promote the qualities of photographic papers and plates that were being offered on the market.
“This illustration [at left], photographed by J.J. Millikin of Toronto and printed on Brown & Palmer’s Malmedy Paper, shows a young lady in a gown with leg-o-mutton sleeves; a very pretty picture in deep unfaded tones but with the image turned sideways in the journal, and the nose pointing most awkwardly to the ground.
“The June 1895 issue carried an Editorial Chat by George W. Gilson in which the explanation for many such portraits was given:”. …
Members read what Geo Gilson had to say in the issue 24-4 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. Get yours by joining today and see all of this article and many, many more. To join, see ‘MEMBERSHIP’ above, or ‘Membership at right. Questions? Email Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.
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