Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows an unidentified Adelied Australian boy wears a Highland kilt outfit. The portrait is undated, but the dealer believes it was taken in the 1890s. We believe that the early-1900s decade was also possible.

Australian boys do not appear to have widely worn kilts. The kilt was, however, a dressup outfit for younger boys in the 19th century. We see a few boys wearing kilts. Unlike America, this seems more the Highland kilt styles than the kilt suit style with out the Higland regalia. Kilt suits is what we primarily see in America. We are not entirely sure how to interpret this. Australia and the other Dominions (Canada and New Zealand) and Amweica were part of the Scottish diaspora in the late-18th and 19th centuries. There was a substantial Irish and Scottish migration to Australia and New Zealand and many Ausralians and Kiwis trace their ancestry back to both countries. Scotts were, however, a relatively small part of the overall immigrant flow. Scotland is a small country compared to England, perhaps a larger percentage of Scotts immigrated, but still the immigrants were mostly English. We see some mostly younger boys wearing Highland outfits. A good example is Jim Anderson, we think in the 1880s. The boy here is another example (figure 1). We believe that these boys were were primarily from Scottish-immigrant families. The kilt suit on the other hand was worn by boys with no Scottish heritage. It was an imporant style for boys in England and even more so in America--boys with no connection to Scotland. While Australian boys' fashions were largely English fashions, the kilt suit was an English fashion that did not transmit to a makjor extent to Australia. But there definitely was a Scottish and Irish uimpzact. Some schools have pipe bands and there are annual Highland gatherings in which kilts are worn. There are also Irish Feises in which kilted dancers perform.

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Crerated: February 6, 2002
Last updated: 12:47 PM 6/15/2023