Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows an unidentified American boy in a well-to-do neighborhood. He looks to be about 9 years old. The boy wears a white shirt and tie with a sweater during the winter with short pants and patterned knee socks. The photograph was taken during the winter as can be seen by the trees in the background. Notice that he is wearing glovesbecause it is cold out. The snpshot is undated, but looks likethe 1930s to us.

Pants and trousers were not in the 19th century seasonal garments. Most boys unless from well-to-do famils did not have extensive wardrobes. Bous did not wear long pants in the winter and knee onts in the summer. The tyoe of pants depebded primarily on age. Younger boys wore shortened-lngth pants, knee pants in the second half of the 19th century and knickers and short pants in the early-20th century. These boys did not shift tolong pants during the winter, but hosiery might change. Many boys went bare foot during the summer, but usually wore long stockings when wearing shoes. American boys shited to knickers in the 1910s, but the conventions for knickers were the same as those for knee pants. Hosiety becme more diverse after World War I (1914-18), but jnickers continued to be stndard. Youngr boys wore short panrs. Gradually the choice of pants became a seasonal. The 1930s was the last decade that boys wore short pants or knickers all year round. And evem in the 30s we see boys shifting to long pants during the winter. Short pants bybthe 1940s were becoming casul seasonal wear, but this varied from family to famly. We still ee some boys drssing up with short pants suits into the 1960s. Here social class was a factor. The primary factor in deciding the types of pants by the 1970s was seaonality. Boys wore long pnts in the inter, but then short pants were worn by many boys for casual wear durung the summer.

Created: 2:15 AM 1/26/2005
Last updated: 8:08 PM 7/15/2007