Archibald Roosevelt: Clothing--Sailor Suits

Figure 1.--Here is Archie at about 7 years old in 1901 riding his bike. He wears a light-colored summer sailor suyir with black long stockings.

We see both Archie and Quentin in the White House often wearing sailor suits. The ones we have noted are summer knee pants sailor suits. These seem to have been worn nore as play suits than dress up outfits, but the sailor suit was a flexible garment that boys could wear when dressing up. We are not sure at what ages Archie wore sailor suits, but we note him wearing a striped aailor suit for play at age 7 years. We see him wearing the same sailor suit both to ride Algonquin and a bicycle. The blouse had the traditional V-collar, but it did not have traditional detailing. I am not sure about the color. While his suit was a striped summer suit with knee pants, he wears them with black long stockings. Archie may have also worn sailor suits to school, but we are not yet sure about that. We are not sure what the President thought about sailor suits for the boys, but we know he was a strong advocate of naval power. He was famous for sending a Navy squadron on a show the flag mission around the world. Congress only approved a small appropriation. The President's reaction was to send the squadron out forcing the Congress to apprive the money to get the fleet home. One of his major accomplishments was building the Panama Canal.