Jeanne Maglaty

1 month ago | smithsonianmag.com | Jeanne Maglaty |Meilan Solly

Children used to wear the same white dresses, regardless of gender. But clothing styles and color preferences shifted in the mid-20th century Two-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits primly on a stool, his white skirt spread smoothly over his lap, his hands clasping a hat trimmed with a feather. Shoulder-length hair and patent leather party shoes complete the ensemble—a fashionable look for young boys in 1884, the year the future United States president sat for this portrait.