U.S. School Clothes: Individual School--North Plainfield School (1898-99)


Figure 1.--This was a class at the the North Plainfield in 1898-99. We think it was the older 8th grade children.Most of the boys wear knee pants suits.

Here are two images from a North Plainfield, New Jersey schholl. One shows a class, we think of the older children. We would guess this is a public elementry (primary school) with classes up to the 8th grade (13-14 year olds). The boys mostly wear knee pants suits with blacl lobg stockings. Afew boys wear long trouser suits. The girls all wear dresses. There is also a portrait of the teachers of the school. All but two are women and one of the men is probably the principal. This suggests to us that it was an elementary school. We know the school was located in North Plainfield and taken in 1898-99. We don't know what the name of the school was. A reader writes, "Notice the two boys on the left front row. They seem to be wearing knee length underwear which is bunched just below the knees and visible through the long stockings. Also most of the boys seem to be wearing high top shoes." Another reader writes,"Interesting that a few of boys are allowed to wear long pants at the age of 12 or thereabouts. I wonder if the other boys were envious of them." Well I Might gues the children here are more like age 13, but point taken. Knee pants were very common for American boys in the 1890s and 1900s, but they were not unversal. While knee pants were made in sizes for older boys, the catalogs of the time show that long pants were made for boys this age. Familiy prefeences varied. Many parents xhose knee pnts for boys, even teenagers, but not all parents. And yes, it would be interesting to know just what the boys thought about this matter.






HBC-SU





Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1850s] [The 1860s] [The 1870s] [The 1880s] [The 1890s] [The 1900s] [The 1910s] [The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]



Navigate the Relate Boys Historical Clothing Style Pages
[Main country page]
[Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Lederhosen] [Kneesocks] [Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers] [Blazer [School sandals] [Bloomers] [Rompers]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[
Main U.S. individual school 1890s chronology page]
[Main U.S. individual school 19th century chronology page]
[Main National School Uniform Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Poland] [Singapore] [Scotland]
[Singapore] [United Stsates]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Return to the Main American 19th century school page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Cloth and textiles] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Girls] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]





Created: 3:09 AM 8/24/2007
Last updated: 3:09 AM 8/24/2007