Figure 1.--Here we see a cabinet portrait of three unidentified English brothers. The boys look to be about 11-16 years of age. The prtrair is undated, but looks to be taken in the 1890s, although this is a little difficult to tell. The cabinet card has silvr lettering which was commonly done in the 1890s and 1900s. This looks more like the 1890s. They are dressed identically. We might guess this is a school uniform, but given the age range they might not have gone to the same school. The studio was John White in Ipswich.

Age 16 years seems to be at the upper end of the age English boys wore knee pants. Some of the boys look a little younger , but was the case generally for boys before the 20th century. we think this may have been mostly schools that required boys to wear knee pants or knickers. Perhaps some parents insisted, but we think it was primarily schools for the older boys this age. Many of the older boys wearing knee pants seem to be wearing school uniforms. This woud have been private schools. State secondary education was not yet common. Most boys were wearing long pants by this age. Even older American boys wore knee pants, but not in the 1880s. Knee pants for these older boys seem rather long, covering the knee, but this probanly had less to do with age than the fact that the style convention was just at the knee in the 1890s, when fewer older boys were wearing knee pants. we do not have any written information on these conventions. All we have been able to pul together is hat we can tease out of the photographic record.

Created: 7:54 AM 4/3/20161
Last updated: 7:55 AM 4/3/2016