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The 1892-vintage boy in the Fauntleroy suit playing with the train on the carpet on the previous page, judging from his elegant clothes and curls, we may infer that he was from a well-to-do family. In general, boys of that era who had toy trains were principally from wealthy or comfortable middle-class families. After World War I in the 1920a we begin to see boys from families of more modest circumstances receiving model train sets as gifts, particularly at Christmas. Of course in the Great Depression, sales of toys of all sorts were seriously affected. We ewant to analyze the sociological role of toys in general (and perhaps toy trains in particular) with respect to the relative wealth of families, although the historical photographic record is probably domewhat biased, but not as much as it would have been in the 19th century. Toy trains of boys from relatively well-to-do families are much more likely to appear in the record than those of less well-off families. The inexpensive snapshot, however, means that se see a fairly wide social-class range in the 20th century. While we probably have a somewhat imperfect measure of wealth in the relative elegance of boys' clothes and hair styles in the visual record, there must be strong correlations. For example, a century ago or longer, boys in long curls wearing Fauntleroy suits would signify wealthy families, whereas boys in overalls would not. In the 20th century we see a steady democratization of fashion along with increasingly casual styles. After World War II the social class differences still apparent at the beginning of the century were rapidly disappearing.
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