Figure 1.--This unidentified American boy wears a fancy Fauntleroy blouse with overalls. Notice the kepi cap and ringlet curls. Eather an unusual outfit. The studio was Withington in Danieson, Connecticut. The portrait was taken October 6, 1898. Notice the fancy wicker chair. We see a lot of portraits with this wicker around the turn of the 20th century. Often the wicker was painted white.

We note a few images in the 1890s, mostly at the end of the decade. And ironically they do not seem to be working-class children, but middle-class children. We are not entirely sure of the conventions involved here. But we see a few portraits of boys wearing very fancy blouses with overalls. W are not sure about the colors. And we see mothers takibg their children to be photograhed wearing overalls. The best indicator as overalls as school wear is school portraits. Amrican children did not wear uniforms. Thus the clothing they are wearing in the school portraits are a good idicator of popular styles. We do not begin to notice them at schools until the turn of the 20th century. We note a boy at at a rural Tennessee school in 1902 wearing what look like home-made overalls. We do not know why they suddenly became so common. It was not until the end of the decade, however, that we note them beng commonly worn to school and only at rural schools. Boys in rural America commonly went to school in overalls through the 1930s abnd into the early 40s.

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Created: 12:40 AM 3/1/2009
Last updated: 12:41 AM 3/1/2009