The Form and Face of the American Child

by Elizabeth Ann Neal

The Seaver Center for Western History Research is home to a valuable collection of American case art, which consists of hundreds of photographic portraits of American adults and children of varied social and economic classes, made possible by the invention of photography. This democratization of the portrait genre created the opportunity for individuals, who were not members of the upper class, to develop their own tradition of portraiture. Each image in the Seaver Center collection, is a significant source of information concerning prevalent customs and social values of the time in which they were created. In addition to reflecting the importance of outward appearances and gentility to the rising middle class, the portraits also serve as records of ideas regarding family identity and children. Portraits of young girls and boys in particular yield valuable clues regarding nineteenth-century America's preoccupation with social status as well as with its newly developed desire to document family relations.

The majority of portraits in the Seaver Center collection reflect images of children in stiff poses, dressed in their finest clothing, the results of which are portraits of overly formal, lifeless children. (Dsc-35) In many portraits, a child's mien is augmented by the inclusion of various symbolic objects such as books, architectural elements, and painted backdrops that are reminiscent of the grandiose settings of painted portraits. A photographer's choice of such elements could influence the cultural claims of status and gentility implied in a portrait. By including a finely carved end chair and a classical architectural motif in this portrait, (Dsc-33) the photographer has aligned the schoolboy (and his family) with allusions to an elevated social stature and wealth.

While the middle class realized its ability to validate, and exaggerate, its social standing via photographic portraiture, it also recognized in the medium an opportunity to substantiate filial bonds and record family heritage. The new art functioned as an effective witness of the continuity of the newly emphasized family line, enabling individuals to create a tangible record of their own prosperity. The elevation of family-the promise of children and the importance of heritage-is seconded by the writings of nineteenth-century American authors like Walt Whitman, who contributed to their encouragement in their literary witness of the same sentiments.

Regarding the notion of familial heritage and tradition, Whitman once wrote, "I knew a man-he was a common farmer-he was the father of five sons-and in them were the fathers of sons-and in them were the fathers of sons"¹ ("Poem of the Body," line 29). The paternal chronicle imagined by Whitman is brought to life in double portrait of an unidentified man and boy, whom one presumes to be father and son. (Dsc-28) Although their relationship cannot be definitively defined, the portrait has clearly captured the self-confidence and kinship of the pair. What seems to be emphasized in the portrait are the emotional and filial bonds shared between the two subjects, which are implied by the adult's simple gesture of resting his left hand on the boy's shoulder.

Enthusiasts for the new art of photography sought permanent visual confirmation of the ideals embraced by the middle class, with their hopes of prosperity and continuity for future generations. In the words of historian John Berger, the people whose images are captured in the portraits of the Seaver Center collection, were striving to "convey the image of [their] present to the future of [their] descendants."² By preserving these portraits, the Seaver Center protects, for a new generation of viewers, a tangible record of the flesh and blood hopes of a past era of Americans.

11 Galway Kinnell, ed., The Essential Whitman (Hopewell, New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1987), 89.
2 John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 144.

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