Figure 1.--Here we see the Dexter School in 1897. The rural schools were primary schools. This school seems notable for the age of the boys still attending. |
|
A good idea of fashion trends in America, as children at public schools did not wear uniforms, can be assessed by looking at what the children were wearing to school. Unfortunately many of the available images are not identified or are not dated, despite this, the images are very valuable views of children's fashion trends. HBC has acquired many images of American schools showing the clothing the children worn. This is a major challebge for the 19th century, we have much more informatiin in the 20th century. We have, however, foundcsome 19th century images. While we do not know the names of these schools or the location, we can estimate the date and classify them as urban or rural schools. Sometimes other information can be discerned from the photograph. Here we havec archived images that are dated, but not identified. We will also included the unidentified images if they are dated.
We have been able to find few school portraits from the 1840s. Photographs were Dagurreotypes and these were mostly taken in studios. This meant that not many school portraits were made. There may be a few, but we suspect they were very rare. We would be very interested in any such images readers may know about. We note boys wearing jackets and long pants. We see girls weating dresses with pinafores and pantalettes. This is an especially interesting period, because it is the decade in with Mark Twain's classic Tom Sawyer is set. Unfortunatelythere are not many photographic images.
We do not know of any school photographs from the 1850s. Of course portraits could be made. There was, however, a economic constraint. This was the case in large measure because the Daguerrotype was a one of a kind image. As there was no negative, copies could not be made to sell to the parents.
School portraits were not really feasible until the 1860s. Once photographic processes creating negatives were developed, a whole new economic activity fr phothraphers opened up--school portraits. One portrait could be taken for sale to all interested parents. We do not, however, notice many school portraits from the 1860s. e have found many individual portraits of children, but school group portraits are realativeky rare.
We are not sure about the name of the school here. We presume that it was the Visalia School as it was located in Visalia, California. Most early schools like this were simply named after the name of the town where they were located. It looks like an early public school. It is dated 1860, but we would take this as more of an assessment than a precise date. We might gues it was taken a little later, but the 1860s is a distinct possibility. Almost all the boys wear long pants. Only one boy wears kneepants. Several boys look to be wearing dresses, but we suspect that these may be girls with short hair cuts.
This is a Civil War era salt print of a large group of school children with their young lady teacher. This portrait was taken in the 1860s, but we do not knpw the exact date. Nor do we know where it was taken. One interesting note: The face of Edwin Christian, standing in the center above the teacher, has been superimposed over the original photograph. We have know idea why. Perhaps he moved during the exposure spoiling his image. (Exposures in the 1860s were still rather long.) His sister Anna Christian is standing to his left. Anna Christian's right hand is resting on the teacher's left shoulder. The two siblings are identified by the caption under the photo "Ed Christian in center. Anna Christian to the left of Ed Christian." Most of the boys wear long pants suits, most sack suit jackets with lapels. Two of the younger boys wear cut-away jackets and the youngest wear tinic suit, one boy with bloomer knickers.
We see some school portraits from the 1870s, but not very many.
We notice a drawing at a very large school in the 1870s illustrating a fire drill. It seems to have been a particularly large school, even for the 1870s. While it is a drawing, it does seem to illustrate an actual school. We do not yet know, however, the name of the school.
Many fathers were killed in the Civil War. The Pennylvania General Assembly created a series of orphan schools to care for them. The Pennsylvania orphan school system eventually numbered 23 primary and 15 advanced schools as the Pennsylvania state legislature --General Assembly) expanded eligibility. The schools were run by Soldiers' Orphan School Department (1870-1889). The General Assembly approved the creation of the Commission of Soldiers' Orphan Schools (May 25, 1889). One of the schools was the Chester Springs School. Here orphaned means losing their father. Presumably they still had their mother and other family members. At the time, the father was normally the bread winner, so losing their father put the boys at a real disadvantage. The school took in both boys and girls. The boys wore military uniforms, but it was not a military school as such. This was because there were girls at the school. The girls wore white dresses.
We begin to see many more school portraits in the 1880s but the number sees still relatiely limited. We are not entirely sure why this did not occur earlier. We suspet that the tehhnology of operating outside studios was still fairly compliated This made the portraits still fairly expensive. Portraits seem more common at private schools than public schools. This presumably reflects the fact that the school portrait was still a fairly new feature and boys at private schools were more avle to pay for it. We see boys wearing a range of outfits, but mostly suits. Knee pants were becoming more common, but not yet commonly worn by older boys. Girls all wore dresses, often wih a pinafrore..
School portraits in the 1890s became very common photogrphy improved and became incerasingly affordable. We see class portraits from all over the country, includuing one-room schools on the rapidly shrinking western frontier. We see boys commonly wearing suits to school, even in country schools, although there boys in warm weather commonly just wore blouses and knee pants. Many boys wore straight-leg knee pants. Knickers were not very common, but we see them at some private schools. The type of pants did vary. We see boys at some schools wearing long pants. We are not entirely sure why there were such variations. Age of course was a factor. Boyys and girls commonly wore long stockings. Black long stokings were especially common.
Many younger boys wore blouses with large collars, sometimes ruffled Fauntleroy collars. We also see sailor suits, especially in urban schools. Girls wore dresses, often with pinafores. Many children came to school barefoot, especially in rural areas.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
[The 1990s]
[The 2000s]
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]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Main U.S. individual school chronology page]
[Main National School Uniform Page]
[Australia]
[England]
[France]
[Germany]
[Ireland]
[Italy]
[Japan]
[New Zealand]
[Poland]
[Singapore]
[Scotland]
[Singapore]
[United States]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
