Pink is for brunettes, blue is for blondes

The selection of pink or blue  for an individual child at the turn of the century was often based on becomingness, according to nineteenth century rules of taste. Pastel shades were considered more flattering to the pale complexions of Caucasian babies, and eye color was an important factor in selecting the correct hue. A portrait of twin infants (sex unknown) found at the Strong Museum of Play illustrates the usual rule. Both are wearing identical white dresses. The brunette twin wears pink booties; the blue-eyed blonde wears blue ones.  The docent described them as a boy and a girl, but it ain’t necessarily so.

The Winterthur Museum and Library has a set of companion paper dolls that also follows the “becomingness” rule: one doll, cut from a magazine, has brown hair, blue eyes and blue trim on her white undergarments. The original owner made a hand-drawn copy with blonde hair, brown eyes and pink trim.  Just a few of the baby books I found at the UCLA Biomedical Library included locks of hair or descriptions of hair or eye color. Of the three locks of brown hair preserved in the books (two boys and a girl), all were tied with pink ribbons. Four of the six blonde locks (four girls and two boys) had blue ribbons (one of the boys and three of the girls). The other blonde boy and girl both had pink ribbons.

Lock of blonde hair with blue ribbon, from a baby book for a little girl, 1914

Eventually, the old rules of “becomingness” were loosened and discarded.The creator of twin sister paper dolls, Madeleine and Gladys (1920) provided this commentary on their wardrobes:  
“Mad (brunette) wears yellow, blue and green. Glad (blonde) wears green, purple and pink. Some people think blondes ought not to wear pink but that's because they don’t know how becoming pink is to a really true blonde."