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All images from the Musée McCord Museum
Thank you to the Musée McCord Museum
Children With Toys, 1860s
If you like this, check out:
Old Japan in 3D
First music video, 1895
Smiles of old Japan
'First motion picture', 1888
Footage of Chicago Street Corner, 1897
'Oldest wedding cake', 1898
Circus Performers, 1899-1928
Clipper Ship Trade Cards, 1800s
Victorian Husbands and Wives
The Studley Tool Chest
The kitchen that time forgot
The lost village of Balmalonesca, 1898-1905
The Invisible Mother
'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals' by Charles Darwin, 1872
Construction of Tower Bridge, 1886-1894
Tetrahedral Kites by Alexander Graham Bell, 1898-1912
Opium Smokers
Blackfriars Bridge, 1896
Flower Children, c. 1920
Ironclads, 1859-1899
Invitation to a Ladies evening, 1897
Of course they looked unhappy. Photyography “back then” was far from easy. Subjects had to be stock still for several minutes at a time. this could explain why pictures of folks smiling are so rare from that era.
I presume in those days taking photographs of kids with toys wouldn’t have been easy; they’d have had to stand still and pose. From the repeating chair I’m guessing these are all taken by the same studio. I wonder if the toys were the kids’ own, or if they came from a box in the studio. Perhaps we’ll never know.
I like the posed “old woman who lived in a shoe” photo. I wonder if the giant shoe was a one-time-use prop or if other parents had their girls photographed surrounded by an overwhelming sea of doll-children.
Kids sure loved that “Hoop and a stick” toy back then!
None of those children look happy!
To stand for a few minutes for one shot. That must hve been hell. Poor kids in such uncomfortable clothing, I am so glad we live today.
Only the very rich could afford ready made toys back in those days. If you were poor you could always play with a clod of dirt…or a stick =)