Figure 1.--Here we see an early postcard back snapshot. It is undated, but the AZO stamp box induicated it was taken 1904-18. We suspect it was taken in the late-1900s decade or early-1910s. Note the unpaved road. We suspect that later in the 1910s that the street would have been paved and the horse and buggy relaced by the Model-T.

We still do not see many American boys wearing overalls at the turn-of-the 20th century. We can follow this as never before, because thanks to the Kodak Brownie, photography came out of the studio an snapshot appear in large numbers. There were some snapshots in the 1890s, but not many. The Bronie made the snapshot easy to take. As a result, almost instantly we have huge numbers of them. We see industrial factory workers wearing them, but not children to any extebnt. And the exiustence of so many snapshiots is very helpful, although most are not dated. We know that because we do not see them in schools until very late in the 1900s decade. We know that because school photography became a well-estanlished school tradition in the late-19th century. And thus schoolwear can be followed in great detail. This is especially helpful as we have found quite a few dated school images. And based on the photographiic record, overalls do not become an important American school garment until the late-1900s decade. We are not even sure that farmers were wearing overalls. It is likely that they were, but it is curious that so few boys were being sent to school wearing overalls. Children tended to be dressed up for school and this included many rural children. We are not sure about the early-19th century, but it was by the late-19th century. There was a sudden change in the late-1900s decade, about 1908. We are not sure just what changed or why, but suddntly e see rural children coming to school in overalls. By the 1910s, overalls would become if not universal, standard wear in rural schools. Inexplicably at the same time, in addition to overalls there was a shift from knee pants to knickers.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web jean pages:
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Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site casual pages:
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[Camp shorts] [Clam diggers] [Cord shorts] [Jump suits] [Koveralls] [Lederhosen] [Pinafore] [Shortalls] [Smocks] [Soccer shorts]

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Created: 1:26 AM 12/6/2023
Last updated: 1:27 AM 12/6/2023