Figure 1.--how long they were. As knee panys as stockings became more common, the problem appeared of how to hold them up. We are not sure who first convceived of stocking supporters. And the first ones may have been for women rather than children. We note one early stocking supporter patented by E.F. Putnam, a lady, in 1863. We assume there were earlier patents for stocjing supporters, but this is the ealiest one we have found so far. Ms. Putnam does not indicate the age or gender of who would use her stocking supporter, but we suspect this one would be for adult ladies.

We note younger boys after breeching wearing knee pants in the 1860s. The pants tended to be long, ct at calf level. Boys wore stokings with knee pants, although we are not sure how long they were. As knee panys as stockings became more common, the problem appeared of how to hold them up. We are not sure who first convceived of stocking supporters. And the first ones may have been for women rather than children. We note one early stocking supporter patented by E.F. Putnam, a lady, in 1863. We assume there were earlier patents for stocking supporters, but this is the ealiest one we have found so far. Ms. Putnam does not indicate the age or gender of who would use her stocking supporter. The fact that the support for the device comes from a waist belt suggests to us that it is for a lady and not a child. It was only relative young boyswearing knee pants in the 1860s and as they did not have defined waists, they would need devices providing shoulder support. A reader writes us, "I believe yhat this stocking supporter would be for both women and children. Even with long dresses, women wore long stockings. I suppose the principal tartet of this device would be ladies, but children sometimes wore belts with garters attached (without any shoulder straps). I recall seeing such a belt with supporters in a Sears catalogue (dated in the 1910s and labeled "athletic"), which certainly was meant for boys (as well as girls). The ages were, as I recall, about 6 to 14 years." We note several other patents throughout the late 19th century. Most 19h century patents were submitted by men. Note that Ms. Putnam does not provide her first name. Probably the garment industry was one area in which lady inventors were more common. We do not know if Ms. Putnam's desiign was actuallu used by a company to make stocking supporters.

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Created: 6:41 AM 5/1/2008
Last updated: 7:28 PM 5/1/2008