President Roosevelt Wore A Dress: New Exhibit
“When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?” is an online exhibit from the University of Maryland Costume and Textile Collection that’s published on Smithsonian.com. The exhibit features an array of late 1800s and early 1900s photographs, prints and artwork, that blur modern gender-lines concerning children’s dress. The curator of the exhibit was Jo B. Paoletti, a historian at the University of Maryland and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, to be published later this year. Paoletti has been studying gender expression in children’s clothing for the last 30 years.
Photo Courtesy of Bettmann / Corbis
Former president, Franklin Roosevelt (above) is styled like the boys in his era: wearing a dress and mary-janes for a studio portrait, likely taken in New York in 1884. Percy (below) is a “boy” paper doll from 1910, included are a baseball uniform and a variety of skirts.
Photo Courtesy of the Winterthur Museum and Library
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Wild Gender is an online magazine and creative hub born out of gratitude for the gift of full expression. We are dedicated to creative practices that celebrate gender fluidity, identity and expression. Wild Gender prioritizes visual art, creative writing, and journalistic work by trans/gender-variant individuals who have never before been published in a public venue. Run entirely by volunteers,we are always in search of writers, thinkers, and creators hoping to participate in our growing community.
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