Ensemble

Unknown

1856 · wool, silk · Costume Institute

Featured here is a well-documented boy's ensemble, worn by William Henry Eaves for a portrait in 1856, when he was near age three. The portrait is currently in the Brooklyn Museum collection. An elaborate costume like this may well have been made specifically for the portrait and not worn for any other occasion. Another version of this ensemble, which is made of more durable and comfortable material, shows evidence of considerable wear which supports the notion that this version was intended only for show. The ensemble expresses the ideal representation of a child in a middle-class American family of the time.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1856

Medium

wool, silk

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Evelyn Eaves and Emma Eaves Alyea in memory of their mother, Elizabeth Predmore Eaves, 1940