The holiday of Thanksgiving became all the rage during 19th century America-certainly more popular and more practiced than ever before or since.
During this time, artists began to render their interpretations of what these first colonists might have looked like: old fashioned, prim, and sternly proper.
Before anyone knew it, a completely false image had emerged as an American icon: bearded men with tall hats; women, men, and children dressed in stark black and white; high-tongued shoes and large bulky buckles.
It was simply a look that Americans in the 1800s decided to foist upon its early settlers.
