Henry Howe Richards (1876-1968) of Gardiner wore this velvet outfit with a lace trim when he was a child.

Young boys in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often were clothed in dresses with lace, flowers and other adornments generally associated with girls.

Richards was the son of a prominent family. His mother, Laura E. Richards, wrote numerous children's books. Julia Ward Howe, his grandmother, wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." His great-grandfather, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, founded the city that bears his name.

As an adult, Richards taught English at Groton School and later was the school's Alumni Recorder. He worked at Groton from 1898 until his death in 1968.