Texas photo claims to be from 1889

Written By Isabella D'Angelo


Late 19th Century Snowman!



A photo on Texas Highways recently came to my attention. It shows a group of people gathered around a fairly fearsome snowman they presumably built. The magazine and several others claimed it’s from 1889 except…it’s not. Dating of images typically relays on word of mouth rather than analysis and the truth of when something was taken is often lost due to that. Based on the snowman and the clothing, I believe this is more likely to be a bit later in date.

While the Fort Worth area did not keep snow total records before 1898, newspapers of the era do not mention more than a trace of snowfall in that area in 1889. What is far more likely, and makes sense with the clothing shown in the photo, is December 1898 snowfall in which the Fort Worth area got 5” of snow. That is enough to build a pretty substantial snowman, as shown.

And then there are the clothes. The ladies sitting in the front, in particular, had the small puffs with the fitted lower arms.

The black and purple dress has a very similar cut to the lady wearing the white lace front in the bottom left in front of the snowman. The wide top of the sleeve with the epaulette sleeve along with the looser, not quite as fitted bodice is more an 1890s thing. Plus, the wider hemmed skirts without a lot of decoration was also more popular in the 1890s.

For 1889, we’d expect to see something more closely resembling this:



The above is a fashion plate from 1896 for men. The cutaway coats, coming just long enough to be “fingertip length” with the high collars showing the full tie is very 1890s. The gentleman on the back left of the snowman is wearing a very similar fashion.

That the photo most likely is for the December 1898 snow storm makes sense with both the fashions and the weather reports of the time.

Isabella D'Angelo