Frank B. Converse With Birthdate

Comment by Joel Hooks on August 21, 2014 at 5:43am

Yah, I showed this (and a bunch of the other photos of minstrels) to a clothing expert that makes museum reproductions. Evidently there was a weird high fashion thing in the early to mid 1860s of really baggy suit coats.

They would fit at the cuffs and shoulder openings, but the rest was huge. I guess every generation has their thing-- in the 1880s it was skin tight pants with flair bottom cuffs that were hemmed contour to the shoes (not to mention the "opera toe" shoes of the 90s with their needle point toes).

When I was a kid we all wore plaid flannel shirts unbuttoned and bleached/torn blue jeans. When I was in my late teens and 20s really baggy pants came into vogue.

He would have been in his late 20s here and at the height of his popularity. Very susceptible to fashion trends.

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