Figure 1.--These children lived in a farm in Jackson Valley, Pennsylvania. They have the photo taken with their alert dog, probably a sheep dog. They are sitting on a little bridge during the summer. The photo was taken in 1940s. Bythe 1940s we see girls commonly wearing short pants in rural areas. Shorts were less common for school-age boys, especially in northern states.

Our assessment of demographic trends is that there were limited stylistic trends between clothing in the cities and rural areas. Styles were set in Europe and the cities ad basically followed in the rural areas which until the very late-19th century is where most of the people lived. There were differences, however, because rural areas were less prospeous and fashionable than the cities. The basic styles, however, were essentially the same. This changed in the early-20th century when overalls became widely adopted in rural areas. This did not occur in the cities. We see rural boys commonly wearing overalls to school. We are not entirely sure why this difference developed, but varying levels of affluence was probably an important factor. Knee pants were never as common in rural areas as the cities. And after World War I when short pants appeared, they were not as common in rural areas as urban areas. Here there was a regional factor. Shorts were more common in the rural South than the rural north. I recall in the late-40s and early-50s, that in the mid-West, pre-school boys and girls wore short pants, but rarely school-age boys. Here we see girls wearing shorts in the 40s (figure 1). Their briother also wears shorts hich was less common. At the same time after Workd sar II, the demofraphic differences began to disappear so by the 1960s when short pants began to become more popular with Americn boys, we see them also neing worn in rural areas. This was especially the case by the 1970s.

Created: 2:07 PM 3/22/2010
Last updated: 2:08 PM 3/22/2010