Figure 1.--Some boys wore skirts and blouses. I'm not sure if skirts as oposed to dresses were more common for boys. Note the pantalettes. I believe this child was photographed about 1860. There is no way to be sure the child is a boy, but the short hair suggests a boy. |
Boys' fashions at mid-19th Century were in a fluid state. The old styles such as tunics and skeleton suits were now less commonly worn. The new styles introduced, mostly originating in England, like kilts,
sailor suits, and knee pants had appeared, but
were still being accepted. Some major styles like Fauntleroy and Buster brown suits had not yet appeared. Boys tended to wear rather non-discript,
plain suits with short jackets and long pants. Their collars and bows were generaly small. One important development was
photography,
which was perfected at mid-century and
increasing numbers of images were soon availabe, revealing fashion trends in increasing details. The
fashion magazines also appeared at mid-century, providing even more information.
The mid-19th Century, until the mid-20th Century, was probably the most critical period in the history of the American Republic. The America of the 1850s
was a powder-keg that finally erupted in the Civil War which in large part not only decide the fate of the American nation and in turn Western
civilizatiion itself. In the end, the Republic was saved, slavery abolished, and the basis the industrial expansion of America began. This tumultuous
period was not reflected in major fashion changes. These were, however, to come in the late 19th Century.
Boys' fashions at mid-19th Century were in a fluid state. Old styles were still worn to some extent, but going out of style. The new styles were still new and not yet fully accepted. Fashion trends in the mid-19th
Century did not move nearly as rapidly as trends move today. Clothes were still largely hand made and as a result still very expensive. The old styles such as tunics and skeleton suits were now less commonly worn.
The new styles introduced, mostly originating in England, like kilts, sailor suits, and knee pants had appeared, but were still being accepted. Some major styles like Fauntleroy and Buster brown suits had not yet appeared.
Figure 2.--This colorized Daguereotype was probably taken in the 1850s. The boy wears a suit outfit of matching jacket, skirt, and long pants. His collar has an Eton-collar look. |
It is interesting to compare the construction and cost of mid-19th century garments with those available later in the century. The garments worn at mid-century were the last era when clothes were hand stiched and made individually. The fit of these garments is noticeably looser than those worn in the late 19th century. This is because the mechnization of clothes production meant that clothes were available in a much wider range of sizes and the cost of producing them plumeted. Clothes at mid-century were still quite costly. They were made by indivudual seamstresses or mothers of varying talents. (Seamstresses generally made boys clothing until they began tio wear adult styles at which point they would be taken tio a tailor. In addition, clothes were not discarded, but worn by a boy until he had fully outgrown thenm at which point theu woukld be passed on to a younger brother or if not yet breeched sister.
A greater variety of garments may have been worn by boys during the mid 19th Century than any other period. Dresses were widely worn by little boys. A few boys in the 1840s were still seen in skeleton suits. Tunics never completely compleletly disappeard. The new sailor suit and kilt styles from England slowly increased in
popularity. The Mexican and Civil Wars introduced military styles. Long pants dominated in the 1840s, but knee pants began to appear by the mid-1860s. American boys' fashions as adult fashions were still strongly influenced by European fashion trends.
A wide variety of caps and hats were worn. Younger boys might wear Tam O'Shanters. Tassels for caps were popular. A good example is Thomas Hardwick about 1840. Note his tasseled Tam o'Shanter.Caps with military styling were very popular. Mexican War-era caps with tassles were popular in the 1840s and 50s, while Civil War-era caps were wotn in the 1860s. Sailor caps and hats were not widely worn, but did appear in the 1860s with inceasing frequency.
Boys continued to wear dresses at mid-Century. Their dresses were little different than those worn by their sisters. The dresses might have low necklines, especially in the 1840s. A good example is an unidentified boy. I notice some boys wore skirts with blouses, I am not sure if this was a new style, or simply more observeable because of the rising number of photographic images. We notice a blue dress worn with a cit-away jacket by Harry Danniel about 1862. Boy dresses specifically styled for a boy were not yet available at mid-century. A good example is Thomas Hardwick about 1840.
Kilts were little seen in America. The style was introduced in England as a boy's
fashion by Queen Victoria in the 1840s. It was little seen in America during the 1840s and 50s, but did begin to make iroads during the 1860s. It was not the fulkl Highland kilt, however, with all the associated regalia that begun to be worn by American boys.
While kilts were still little worn even by the 1860s, some skirted outfits were worn. They were often worn with matching jackets. They were worn with a variety of garments friom pantalettes to matching long trousers. I am not sure
about the origins of this style. I have not noticed it during the early 19th Century, but this could be more of a relection of increasing number of available images as a result of photography. The skirt style has different possible origins. Some of the outfits have the look of tunic outfits. They may also be a reflection of the new kilt style for boys introduced in England. I am not sure at this time about the gender conotations of skirts. I do not know at this time whether skirts as opposed to dresses were widely worn by girls and women and whether there were social class or natiional differences. Nor do I know if there were differences between how young boys and girls were dressed in skirts. A good example is a Pennsylvania boy during the 1860s.
The popular tunic style declined in imoprtance during this period, but never completely disappeared. The longer tunics worn in the early 19th century gradually evolved into a kind of tunic jacket.
Figure 3.--Boys wore suit jackets with long pants at mid-century. The child on the left is probably a girl, but the child on the right (also in a dress) is probably a boy. Notice the older boy's over the ears hair. |
Boys tended to wear rather non-discript, plain suits with short jackets
and long pants. The jackets appeared rather shapeless and were not generally
well-tailored. They were often worn with pants that did not match, inclusing
checkered pants.
American boys might still wear quite large, in some cases ruffled collars during the 1830s. These collars decreased in size during the 1840s and became quite plain. Collars were generally small by the 1850s, although one occasionally sees fancer ones. White collars looking like Peter Pan collars, were common worn, but they were relatively
small in comparison to the huge collars worn in the late 19th Century. One also sees collars clearly influencd by the English Eton collars.
Shirts and blouses were not worn with large bows, although some boys
wore small bow-tie like neck wear or simple narrow ribbon bows. Older boys might wear stocks like their fathers.
Most boys in the 1840s wore long pants. Even as the skeleton suit
was going out of style, boys continued wearing long pants. Very young
bpys might wear tunics weith pantalettes, but most soon turned to long
pants. Kneepants began to appear in the 1860s, although long pants
were still much more common, even for younger boys. This had begun to change in Europe. French boys by the 1860s were commonly wearing knicker-like pants and this style by the late 1960s had begun to increasingly influence American boys' fashions.
Pantalettes were commonly worn by boys still wearing dresses,
but once they were breeched they were not normally worn. Pantalettes
were extremely fashionable in the 1840s, but began declining in importance
during the 1850s. We note Arthur Hamilton wearing plain pantalettes in 1869.
Our information on mid-19th century hosiery is very limited at this time. As best we can tell, children commonly wore socks in the 1840s, often three-quarter length socks. A good example is Thomas Hardwick about 1840. Boys in the 1q850s wore juvenile suits with bloomer knickers. Some of the hosiery seems long enough go be lonfg stockings raher than socks. Many photographs from the 1860s show boys wearing hosiery with kneepants, but the kneepants are usually so long that we are unsure about the type of hosiery.
Figure 4.--This boy pictured with his mother or older sister in the 1860s, has a hair knot-type hair do. Note the parts on both sides. He appears to be wearing a type of tunic suit. Note the small collar and lack of any bow. |
Very young boys might wear long hair and curls. Ringlet curls became increasingly common for girls of all ages during this period, as they did for their mothers. Long ringlets seem rare in the 1840s, but by the 1860s we begin to see short ringlets. Note the boy here with a large ringlet on top of the head (figure 4). I am unsure to what extent boy's hair was dome in ringlets. They might have been ]used for toddlers, but I do not think they were normally used to
style the hair of older boys. Older boys generally wore short, but not very short hair. A good example is Thomas Hardwick about 1840. It was common for boys to wear their hair over their ears. Another example is an unidentified boy. Some boys had long hair and curls, but the norm was generally short hair.
No information developed here.
Information on fashion increases enormously in the mid-19th century.
Photography had become commercially viable by the 1840s with the Daguerotype. This was a major development because while still expensive, was much less expensive than a a painting. It also provide styling, but not color details. Furthur advances had made photography much less expensive by the 1860s creating ever increasing numbers of images. The concept of the fashion magazine arrived in America during this period. While circulation was still limited, fashion information was arriving at the American home as never before.
Figure 5.--This Daguerotype looks to have been taken in the 1850s. The children, pictured with their parents, all wear white dresses. I'm not sure, however, about their gender. At least the youngest child looks to be a boy. |
Photography was still very limited in 1840 thus limiting the availability of images to illustrate fashion. Younger American boys by the 1840s wore dresses. A good example is Thomas Hardwick about 1840. Note his tasseled Tam o'Shanter. School age boys were no longer wearing skeleton suits and tunics were becoming less common. The ruffled collars still seen as late as the 1830s were being replaced by plainer white collars which still could be quite large. The long trousers enspired by the skeleton suit were now commonly worn by boys after breeching. Kneepants were no widely worn even by quite young boys.
The 1850s is the first decade in which large numbers of photographic images of boys appear. Thus for the first time we have large numbers of very accuate images picturing boys' clothing. American boys by the 1850s were no longer wearing long tunics, although the style had evolved into a kind of tunic jacket which was popular. The tunic-style jackets often had embroidere designs. The collars worn by boys grew increasingly small in the 1850s, in sharp contrast to the collars boys wore in the earlier and latter period of the decade. Boys almost universally wore long trousers, generally quite baggy. Some boys might have pants above the ankles, but this may have been primarily the result of boys outgrowing their clothes and the high cost of replacing them--not a fashion statement.
The 1860s saw the most cataclysmic event in American history, the Civil War. Civil War battles were major bloodlettings with sometimes more fataloties in a sigle day of battle than whole World War II campaigns. In a country with a still fairly small population, few families were spared. HBC has noted that the impact of wars and social uphevals frequently are reflected in fashion. HBC, however has not yet fully determined the impact of the war on boys' fashions. Some fashions were inspired by the war. The most readily observable trend was before the War American boys generally wore long pants after breeching. After the War kneepants begin to become increasingly popular. This does not, however, seem to be an impact of the War as the same trend is observable in Europe. It may be that American fashion trends were not as affected by the War as they were still largely influenced by European fashions.
Academic sources report that early as the 1830s, social trends like urbanization and industrialization were beginning to change America from the agrarian and craft-based economy of the 18th century. These trends became much more pronounced in the 1840s and 50s as America moved toward Civil War. The impact was far reaching. One result was to create youth who spent more time in school. In the early 19th century many children did not attend schools at all or got only a few years of schooling. This began to change by mid-century as almost all children received at least some schooling. This mean that children were much more dependent on their parents for a longer period. Until the early 19th century, most boys lived on the farm or were apreticed at about age 12. Boys were still apprenticed in the mid-19th century, but many more boys continued their education for longer periods. This development was giving rise to a new phemomenon--youth culture that was to have a great impact on fashion and dress. It was to have other benign consequences. Pre-Civil War newspapers report youth "gangs" and "juvenile delinquency" in the larger cities. [Graebner, pp. 11-13.]
A sizeable number of Americans through the mid-1860s lived in slavery. These black Americans lived in the southern and border states. The fashions discused on HBC for the mid-19th century are those worn by free whites. Some blacks lived in northern and even southerm states as free, but not all franchised citizens. The vast majority of blacks, however, were slaves living in the South. The clothing worn by these Americans need to be addressed.
We have several American boys from the mid-19th century archived on HBC.
We will gradually archive the examples here. We note an unidentified boy wearing a suit or vest, probably in the 1830s or 40s. Another example is Thomas Hardwickabout 1840.
We note unidentified brothers and sisters in the 1850s.
We note Arthur Hamilton wearing plain pantalettes in 1869.
Graebner, William. Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era (Temple University Press, 1990).
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