Figure 1.-- |
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Most of the devices loaded on HBC are American. Apparently the tradition in America goes back to the mid-19th century. It may go back even further, but the earliest confirmation so far that we can find date to about 1870. One of the interesting sources for this sort of information is a list of registered patents for various kinds of children's underwear in the 19th century. Many of the inventors of the improvements were, not surprisingly, women, since mothers usually controlled what sort of clothing their boys and girls wore, and women were always seeking to invent or design more efficient or more comfortable garments for their children. Usually the various patents
required pen and ink drawings showing the design of the item in some detail. I'm not certain how many of these items actually reached the manufacturing stage. They may have simply been ideas of various people for improvements in clothing design. But they are quite revealing, nonetheless, and tell us much about what sort of underpinnings children wore or should have been wearing in the imagination of clothing inventors and designers.
Thus we have Linda Spigelmyer of Hartleton, PA, registering a patent
for an "improvement in a children's body brace and supporters" on 12
April, 1870. The patent no. is 121,934. Patents seem to have
registered by state.
Although she calls the garment a "body brace" it is really a sort of
canvas bodice or underwaist with lacing in back and buttons down the
front. Presumably its stiffness would keep the boy's or girl's body
erect and would thus affect posture. It has a strip of tape around the
waistline onto which outer clothing could be attached. There seem to
be buttons front, back, and sides on the waist band. Two elastic
y-shaped hose supporters are attached by buttons on the front of the
bodice, and the shoulder straps seem to have buttons for adjustment of
size on the front. These would allow for a child's growth. There are
reinforcement straps down the front of the waist with what look like
buckles or fasteners of some sort. I'm slightly mystified about what
these are for. They could be for additional garters or perhaps for
attaching skirts or trousers. No age is specified, but boys and girls
wore underwaists in the 19th century up until their teenage
years--perhaps as old as 16 for girls and maybe a bit younger for boys.
Later on, underwaists were usually worn only by younger children (12 or
younger), and stocking supporters of other kinds (such as suspender
waists) were worn by older boys.
Another garment from the same period is referred to as a "Combined
Stocking Supporter and Skeleton Waist". This was designed by August M.
Stiger of Brooklyn, NY, and was registered for a patent on 30 August,
1870. The patent no. is 106,885. A girl is shown in the drawing, but,
presumably, this garment would be equally appropriate for a boy. The
idea of skeleton waists was to make the necessary support functions of
the traditional underwaist lighter in weight and more comfortable to
wear as well as more flexible for active children. The complexity of
this garment is really astonishing, and it is hard to imagine how it
could have been comfortable for a boy or girl. It looks very much like
the 19th-century ancestor of the garter waist with its harness-like
construction (suspender straps and a cross piece on the chest). There
is a waist belt with buttons around it for the attachment of outer
clothing such as skirts, knee trousers, and perhaps additional
underdrawers. Attached to the waist band are straps which end in three
separate buckles (one on each side over the hips and another in front).
The side buckles have a single elastic hose supporter attached
whereas the front buckle divides into two straps with hose supporters
for the front of the leg. Thus each stocking is held by two different
clasps. Notice how long the supporter straps are--necessary because of
the shortness of the stockings, which barely cover the knee. This
harness was also supposed to serve as a restraint for shoulders,
although the posture aspect of the garment seems to be secondary. The
main purpose is the suspension of trousers, skirts, and stockings.
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