Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows four brothers, perhaps with a cousin thrown in with the group. They look to be about 3-9 years old. The photographer was Fermann & Wise in Stoughton, Wisconsin. The portrait is undated, but we think was probably taken in the early-1870s, in part because cabinent cards were rapidly replacing the CDV format. Notice the striped stockings which were very popular in the 1870s. Notice one of the boys is wearing long pants. We are not entirely sure why, but they coukld be hand-me-downs.

Most American boys in the 1870s wore either knee pants or long pants. We see some bloomer knickers in the 1860s, but less so in the 70s. The bloomer knickers we noted at mid-century are rarely seen in the 1870s. This contrasted with Europe where boys wore both bloomer knickers and knee pants. Knee pants continued to be worn at lengths well below the knee. Knee pants in America became increasingly common in the 1870s, at least among city boys. At the beginning of the decade it was just some younger boys. This trend became increasingly pronounced in the 1870s. By the end of the decade, knee pants were standard for younger boys and the age conventions increasing, although only slightly. Knee pants were only being worn by younger boys like we see here--and notice one is still wearing long pants (figure 1). Older boys above about 8-10 years of age still were not commonly wearing knee pants. We also see differences between rural and urban areas. City boys were far more likely to wear fashionable styles. This mean the increasingly popular shorter pants lengths for boys. These shorter lengths were less common in rural areas. Photography at the time was mostly studio photography. But by this time we begin ton see magazine illustrations. A good example is a snowball fight depicted in Harper's Weekly (January 1874). Montgomery Ward began the mail order business. His first catalog as only one page (1872), but rapidly grew providing another vluble source of information. We have some information on 1870s catalogs. Even in the 1870s quite young boys might still wear long pants, although this was becoming less common, especially by the end of the decade. Knee pants in particular were not only less common in rural areas, but also among working-class families. These boys mostly wore long pants in the 70s. While we see many portraits with pre-school boys wearing either dresses or other skirted garments like kilt suits. These younger boys after breeching mostly wore knee pants. The pattern for school age boys was substantially different, especially beyond the first few years of primary school. At rural schools even the younger boys might wear long pants, but notably we do not yet see overalls even though they were becoming increasingly common for working-class men in factories. At city schools, knee pants became increasingly common, especially for the younger boys. This can be seen in the school photography which became more common in the 70s. While knee pants were fairly standard for younger city boys by the end of the decade, we note many younger boys in rural areas and the West still weating long pants. Also notably knee pants were almost always worn with long stockings. We see that in the studio photogrphy. An exception of course were the boys going barefoot which was very common throuhout the 19th century. The striped stockings popular in the 70s help to date images.

HBC

Created: 11:48 PM 10/9/2008
Last updated: 3:33 PM 11/20/2023