Figure 1.--Willie is pictured here about 5 of age, probably about 1856. He wears a simple cut-away jacke and , white Eton collar with long pants. Note how the jacket only has one button and falls away at the bottom.

We do not have much informnation on how Willie was dressed. Unlike Tad, there are very few photograohs of Willie. As best we can tell, both Wille and Tad were dressed very plainly. We see none of the fancy fashions that were beginning to become popular. It is likeky that the images we have of Tad show how Wllie was also dressed. We have no information what Willie thought his clothes. Boys at the time wore what their mothers bought for them. But the Lincoln children were not strictly disciplined, in fact they were not disciplined at all. One wonders if they didn't express definite ideas about their clothes. The children were dressed very plainly even though their mother was obsessed with fashion. We begin to see fancier styles for boys in the 1860s, but this was mostlky thecase in the big northeastern cities. Tius was less true in the West, especially rather provincial towns like Springfield. We continue to see this dichotomy for many subsequebt decades.

Toddler Clothes

We are not sure how Willie was dressed as a really young boy. Presumably he wore dresses as was the fashion of the day. I have never seen photographs, however, of Willie as a younger boy in dresses. Nor is any information available on his breeching.

Hats

HBC has only one image of Willie with a hat. It has a modest brim with a felt crown. One SCV portatit shows him holding what looks like a straw hat, but it is a littkle difficul to make out.

Collars

Willie often wore shirts or blouses with distinctive white collars. They were not the enormous collars of the late 19th century, but especially as a younger boy they were prominent. We only note pointed collars in the available images, but he may have worn rounded collars as well. We are not sure if these are blouse collars or detachavle collars.

Bows

Boys in the 1860s did not wear large bows like the ones popular in the 1880s. Willie with his Eton collar wears no bow at all. In most of his photographs he wears a simple stock, similar to the one worn by his father. One indistinct photograph shows him wearing what may be a large bow, but this was not common. Mostly they look like stocks that have beenb elogated a bit to look like bows.

Suits

Willie by about 5 or 6 years of age is wearing juvenile cut-away jackets with Eton collars and long pants (fifure 1). He wore a jacket which was popular in the 1850s and 1860s with a jacket wore open or partially closed. He does not wear a bow with his Eton collar. Willie's jacket has one button holding it closed in the middle. Other boys at the time wore a similar jacket with a closing button only at the collar and the two sides completely separate at the bottom. Willie by 8 or 9 wears increasingly adult looking, rather nondescript suits. We note him ewearing collar-buttoning suits with a long column of brass buttons, rather a military look. This had been a standard style for boys since the 1840s. The primary variation was the collar. Mary seems to have preffered the white collar for the boys. This wasa juveile style. Adukt men wore lapel jacket suits, but we only notice Wille and Tad wearing these collar buttioning suits, usually with a white collar. We are not sure about the color. They may have been blue, but we are not sure. Much fancier styles had begun to appear in the 1860s. As fashionable as Mary was, you might expect one of these fancier styles for the boys. But probably these styles were not yet popular in the Midwest and by the time she and the boys got to Washingtoin, it was too late to change. All of the available images show all the Lincoln children wearing long pants suits.

Pants

The new fashion of knee pants for boys appeared in the 1860s, but as far as weknow, Willie and his brothers all wore long trousers after they were breeched. This was not uncommon in the early 1860s, but some boys, especially boys from fashionable families, were beginning to wear the bewfashiinal knee pants. Willie never did.