Tuesday, February 10, 2009

All dressed up

These are pictures of my Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond family. Thomas Richmond was born in Wiltshire in England and immigrated in 1856 to New England, and Julia was a descendant of William and Susanna (--?--) White, through Peregrine White, on the Mayflower in 1620. Their family is described in Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) and Julia (White) Richmond (1848-1913).

The picture below is from about 1887, and was probably taken on the Richmond farm in Putnam, Connecticut. The names of the family members are in this post.



In the photograph above, we see a couple and their large family dressed in their Sunday best. The baby, James (born 1885), is on his mother's lap, and is still in a baby "dress." Thomas has a nice suit and Julia appears to be in a dark-colored high-necked long dress.

The picture below is about eight years later in 1895, although it may be as late as 1900. It was taken in Clinton, Massachusetts, according to family records.



The children have all grown up a bit, and it appears that their clothing quality has improved significantly. Unfortunately, the original picture (on the wall in my memorial hallway) does not have any better details. The family resided in Leominster, Massachusetts in this time period. The oldest daughter, Annie, is seated on the far right, and is married by this time to Walter Pickford and they resided in Clinton, Massachusetts. My grandmother, Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) is the very stern-looking young lady in the high-necked white dress on the far left. She married Frederick W. Seaver in 1900.

I thought comparing the dressing styles between the two decades would be interesting. However, children's dress and young adult dress are significantly different anyway. I don't see much difference in the dress of Thomas and Julia, either.

2 comments:

RBaum said...

Dear Mr. Seaver: I am a new subscriber and find your postings very interesting. I actually signed up in order to see if I could get some help in finding some information on a granduncle of mine. His name is Frederick H. Thomas. He and my grandmother and their other siblings were orphaned by 1897. When he grew up he left WV, joined the Army, fought in WWI, and then met and married a girl from California. I know her first name but am not sure of her maiden name; Georgia Mae (?) Thomas. They lived in her mother's house by a Bay of some sort. About 3 years later they were divorced. I don't know if there was issue from this marriage. Anyway, the next thing I found out was that he was living in a boarding house, I'm not sure where. I also know that he finished his army career as a 2nd lieutenant. That's about the crux of the information that I have. Not much to go on but would you be able to give me some direction to search now. I would truly appreciate it. Roberta Baum

Andrea Christman said...

LOVE the girls' lace collars and the ties/ascots on the boys! They were really dressed in their Sunday Best, weren't they? Thanks for sharing!