This artefact belongs to: © New Brunswick Museum
Painting
Robert and William Thomson
About 1820, 19th century
Oil on canvas
118 x 98 cm
1944.367
This artefact belongs to: © New Brunswick Museum
Robert and William Thomson
About 1820, 19th century
Oil on canvas
118 x 98 cm
1944.367
This artefact belongs to: © New Brunswick Museum
Keys to History:
During the 19th century, the experience of childhood changed more significantly for girls than it did for boys. Little boys-until the age of about 5 or 6-wore long, loose dresses like their sisters. As they got older they were dressed in pants-short pants for little boys, long pants for big boys. At a 1868 Sunday school picnic, the girls engaged sedately in archery while the little boys made "a fierce and continuous attack on the footballs."
References
Acadian Recorder (Halifax) 29 August 1868; Barbara Kaye Greenleaf, Children Through the Ages: A History of Childhood ( New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978).
What:
The bigger of these boys is holding a toy sailboat. Toys were usually sex-specific and often related to the occupations of family members. In this case, the boys' father might have been a sea captain.
Where:
Toy sailboats were launched in ponds and streams, but larger model sailboats were regularly raced in harbours such as Halifax Harbour, where they attracted considerable interest.
When:
Enthusiasts continued to race model sailboats on Halifax Harbour until the Second World War, from 1939-1945.
Who:
Only the relatively wealthy could afford to buy toys sold in toy shops; for the children of the poor, toys were homemade.