Figure 1.--This unidentified American boy wears a collar-buttoning jacket with knee pants and black long stockings. He looks sabout 12 years old. His suit lwith some Norfolk styling looks like it was done with corduroy. The portrait is undated, but the mount suggests that it was probably taken in the 1890s. The studio ws Aiken in Evanston, Illinois.

The collar-buttoning suit was a popular style for boys. Many school-age boys wore them. The collar buttoning jacket could theoretically be worn by boys after breeching, That would primarily mean boys about 3-5 years old. There were, however, other styles such as tunics, Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits, or other juvenile styles. They seem to have been done primarily in sizes for school-age children. So we see these boys shifting to collar-buttoning suits around 6 years of age. Some pre-school boys wore them. The photographic record shows mostly school age boys and younger teens wearing them wearing these suits. There are countless examples in the photigraohic record. Here we mean boys in primarty (elementary) school, meaning 6-13 years of age. A good example is Percy Jackman in 1899. He was 10 years old. The boy here looks to be about 12 years of age. They become less commonly worn by youths when they reached their teens. Unlike some other gsarments, the asge concentions do not seem to have varied over time, although the types of pants worn with them did vary over time. Thus we see boys wearing then to about 12-13 years of age. After this they become less common. Unfortunately only a small proportion of the photographic record has writing which indicated ages. Thus we are left to estimting ages. While this is imprecise, we are unlikely to be off by more than a year or so. Family portrait poften provide useful indicators of the age conventions.

Age 3 Years

The collar buttoning jacket could theoretically be worn by boys after breeching, That would primarily mean boys about 3-5 years old. There were, however, other styles such as tunics, Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits, or other juvenile styles. Mby mothers preferred these garments after breecjing. They seem to have been done primarily in sizes for school-age children, but some pre-school boys wore them.

Age 5 Years

Most but not all boys had been breeched by age 5 years of age. Often nothers chose arange of outfits lile tunics, sailor suits, Fauntleroy suits when a boy was first breeched. Thus we see fewer pre-school boys wearing collar-buttoning jackets than these other alternatives. Even so we see quite a number of 5-year olds wearing these jackets and often without any age gradding differences with older brothers. Clearly much less than half of the 5 -year olds wore these suits. In school portaits we often see more than hlf the school-age boys weating these collar-buttoning suits. The photographi record is so large that we have nany example of 5-year olds earing these suits. Unlike school age boys, we can not use our 19th century chool pages to assess prevalence.

Age 6 Years

Age 9 Years

Collar-buttoning jackets wre very common for boys y years of age, In fact the age range of avout 6-12 was most common for these jackets. Within that range we have not noted a substantial difference in prevalence. We have noted numerous portraits that look to be about 9 years of age. A good example are two unidenified Missouri brothers who look to be about 9-0 years old. Often we see many portraits of brothers brothers within the grade-school age ranges wearing similar suits with little or no age grading differentiation.

Age 10 Years

A good example is Percy Jackman in 1899. He was 10 years old.

Age 12 Years

The boy here looks to be about 12 years of age. Thus we see boys wearing then to about 12-13 years of age. After this they become less common. The Illinois boy here is a good example (figure 1).

Age 13 Years

Some younger teens also wore collar-buttoning jckets. Collar-buttoning jackets become less commonly worn by youths when they reached their teens. Unlike some other gsarments, the age concentions do not seem to have varied over time, although the types of pants worn with them did vary over time.

Created: 11:52 PM 1/12/2010
Last updated: 10:55 PM 8/6/2017