Figure 1.--This CDV photo was taken by J. Bruce & Co., Toronto, Canada. The boy is 12-years old and the portrait was taken in 1876. The boy is identified as George Stephenson ?????. Unfortunately his family name is undecophierable. Perhaps somthing like Thompson.

The popularity of long pants suits in Canada varied over time. We have only limited information at this time on the 19th century. As best we can tell at this point, Canadian boys wore mostly long pants suits until the late 19th century. We think styles were very similar to Britain. This began to change in the late-19th century, in large measure due to the popularity of the American mail order catalogs in rural areas. We are entirely sure at this time how this functioned as Canada wa a foreign country. I think Sears and Wards opened up operations in Canada. British styles presumably continued to be more important in the larger cities where people were more likely to shop in stores. We have more information on the 20h century. One might think that given the climate that long pants suits have been more common in Canada than other countries, but this does not seem to have been the case. Some boys in the 1950s wore knicker and short pants suits, but long pants suits were becoming increasingly common. Even younger boys might have long pants suits. Long pants suits became increasingly common in the 1940s and were largely worn by the 1960s.

Created: 4:39 PM 4/5/20091
Last updated: 4:39 PM 4/5/2009