Figure 1.--This unidentified boy wears a collar-buttoning military jacket. He looks to be about 13 years old. The jacket has a small collar, but covers up the collar of the shirt he is wearing. We have not yet tworked out the chronology. We believe they first appered in the 1840s, but our inability to destinguish between 1840s anf 50s Dags makes this dfifficult to establish with any certainty. These military styled jackts seem most popular in the 1850s. This CDV-portrait can be dated to the 1860s. Note how the middle butons are unbuttoned. This surely was not an accident. We think the buttons were left undone for Napoleonic poses with the hand in the jacket. It does provide another glimpse of his white shirt, otherise almost totally covered except for the collar and a bit of cuff. The portrait was taken by A.L. Jones in Geneseo, New York.

Some of these colar buttoning jackets had military syling, especially during the mid-19th century. They look like mid-19th century military uniform jackets. We see large numbers of these jackets in the 1840s sand 50s, before the Civil War. We are not entirely sure about the chronoogy. We have no information on the 1830s at this time. We think they were poopular in the 1840s. We can not yet, however, substsantiate this. Here we have a problem because so many Daguerreotypes were not dated. A good example James Wilson. We are not sure if Jamnes and his sister were photgraphed in the 1840s or 50s. This we can not easily destinguish between 1840s and 50s dags. We do know these jackets were popular in the 1850s and we also see them in the early 60s. They were usually dark jackets, probsably navy blue. We note other colors, but navy blue were by far the most common. They were done with large numbers of buttons, commonly brass buttons. Brass buttos were not salways used, but they were popular. The destintgive row of brass buttons is the most destinctive feaature of these suits. The actual number varied. Besides the buttons, the jackets were very plain. A good example is an unidentified Connecticut boy about 1865.

Military Styling

Some of these colar buttoning jackets had military syling, especially during the mid-19th century. We are not bsure about the 1840s, but we ee these jacketrs in th 50s and 60s. They look like U.S. mid-19th century U.S. Army uniform jackets. The jackets might have collars of varying sizes, although this is not always clear because they were often worn with white collars, presunably part of shorts worn under the jacket. These white collars were very common. The military styling primarily came from the prominant buttons down the front which we think were often brass. The destinctive row of brass buttons is the most destinctive feature of these suits. There are usually many more buttons than are needed to close the jacket. The actual number varied. Besides the buttons, the jackets were very plain. Many were done in blue which also gave them a military look. U.S. Army uniforms were at the time blue. A good example is an unidentified Connecticut boy about 1865. There was no other military styling. The jackets were cut short, just at the waistline, another military look. Only the nilitary style collar-buttoning jackets were cut short like this. We don't see more obvious military military features like epaulets.

Chronology

We see large numbers of these jackets in the 1840s sand 50s, before the Civil War. We are not entirely sure about the chronoogy. We have no information on the 1830s at this time. We think they were popular in the 1840s. We can not yet, however, substsantiate this. Here we have a problem because so many Daguerreotypes were not dated. We have many Dags showing boys wearing these jackets. Most Dags were taken in the 1840s and 50s. The problem is that we can not destinguish the 1840s Daggs from thise taken in the 1850s. A good example James Wilson. We are not sure if Jamnes and his sister were photgraphed in the 1840s or the 50s. This we can not yet develop a detailed chronology. We do know these jackets were popular in the 1850s and we also see them in the 60s. We know thst because there were quite a number of CDVs. They were much less common in the 70s. .

Colors

These collar-buttoning military jackets in the photographic record were usually dark jackets. We believe that the dark jackets were pmostly navy blue. We see some lighter-colored jackets, but they were not nearly as common. Similarly styled U.S. Army jackets were blue, both before and during the Civil War when these military-styled jackets were popular. Boys wore other colored jackets, but these jackets may have been done only or primarily in blue. We cannot yet confirm this. The black-and white photograohy of the day suggests navy blue, but this is not definitive. We have found various colorized images which suggest that the dark jackets were usually navy blue. While the number of color images are limited, all of the dark color images we have found are blue. While thast does not mean asll the dark jackets were blue, it does suggest that most were blue like Army uniforms.

Shirts

We note these military jackets worn with and without visible shirts. Most of the images we gave archived show the boys wearing shirts with these jackets, or at least detachable collars. The shirts are ioften almost entirely covered so we are not sure about the shirts worn with tggese jackets. There much have been shirt or shirt waists. Most boys seem to have worn these jackets with white shirts, based on the collars we can see. Usually you can only see a hint of the shirt at the collar. Of course if a detachable collar is used, that covers up the actual shirt or shirt waist. If you look carefully you can sometimes see shirts cuffs. But usually all you see of the boys' shirts are a little bit of the collar. Thus we know next to nothing of the contruction of the shirts boys wore with these jackets. As far as we can tell they were mostly white shirts. We note some with more prominent show of the shirt collars. In some cases they cover the jacket collars. We note both small and large shirt collars. The large collas are almost always detachable collars. We suspect that there was a chronological aspect to thee variations, but because so few Dags are dated, we have not yet been able to establish these trends. One hint of course are that Ambros as well s tin-types only begin in the mid-1850s and CDVs in the early-60s. Most of the large collars we have found are Dags and to a lesser exten tin-types. And as detachable collars were invented in America during the 1830s, they could have been worn in the 1840s. This may mean that the large detachable collars were more of a 50s style. We are still working on this issue.

Neckwear

We see boys wearing these jackets both with and without neckwear. This depended some what on the collar. We see boys wearing these jackets without vissible shirt collars or with shirt collars just peeking outfrom the jacket. This made it difficult to wear neckwear, but not impossible. The boy here wears one of these bowties without a substantial shirt collar. Other boys wore larger collars. This often meant a large detachable Eton collar or Eton like collar. We are not yt sure about the chronological trends here. The neckwear tended to be small, especially compared to the huge floppy bows that came lter in the decade. The standard adult neckwear at the time was the plain stock. These were not real comfortable to wear. We see some boys wearing them, but more common seens a related style which the stock being done in a kind of small bow tie. We also see roughly formed small bows. This inclused both black and patterned stocks and bows. The black ones seem the most common, but this is just an initial assessment.

Pants

We see collar buttoning jackets worn both with both non-matching and matching pants. Some of the non-matching pants were done as loud, bold checks. This seems to have been primarily a chronological matter. We see these loud non-matching pants in the 1840s. Non-matching pants seem to have been stabdard. We are not entirely sure about the 1850s, because dating Dags is difficult. We can't ifferehtute between the 1840s and 50s Dags. Gaving Ambris helps us here as they are jostly from the 1850sc and very early-60s. We notice some non-matching outfits in the 1850s. We are less sure about loud pants. By the 1860s we mosdtly see matching pants, especially after the very early-60. We only see these jackets being worn with long pants. This proban;y related to the ge of the boys wearing them and the fact that shortened-length pants did not become popilar until these military-styled jackets begn going out of fashion.

Hair Styles

Both boys and mens tended to wear their hair long at mid-century. We commonly see boys with hair down to or even sometimnes over the ears. Thus we see many of the boys wearing these jackets had longish hair.

Created: 12:45 AM 7/24/2009
Last updated: 5:18 PM 1/13/2015