Tartan ID question on an antique photograph

[figheadair]

Well you'd asked for my opinion privately but since this is now in the public domain I'll share my answer with the rabble.

Black and white photography can often be difficult to interpret because some colours appear opposite in intensity to how they do to the naked eye. Actually what I think we have here is good old Royal Stewart with light blue at the edge of the red. This was one popular tartan in Victorian times (I'd date this picture c1880-90) and I think that this is woman's pseudo-Scottish dress made to ape the male dress at a time before women wore kilts like they do today. You'll see that there is also a train/plaid, probably silk that is a warp faced tartan. This was probably a fashionable outfit rather than for Scottish events such as Burns' Night.

I very much doubt that it was intended to represent any particular clan connection.

[Mer]

I appreciate your input. I hadn't realized tartans were so fashionable during the time period, but apparently Queen Victoria set a trend for that which bled over into the U.S. Now I can confidently tell my students it's an earlier example of trendy, Americanized Scotland on display . . . kind of like this past school year when two of my senior students bought Utilikilts and beat-up tam o'shanters (which they proudly wore with their dreadlocks) to celebrate their "heritage"!