Figure 1.--This CDV portrait was taken in the 1860s right after the Civil War. It was found in a family photographic album of the Thomas and Waitman families in Ohio and Washington, Pennsylvania. The other portaits in the album date to 1865-67. This one was probably 1867 as therevis no tax stamp on the back. The children look to be about 6-11 years old. Their sister has a fancy short hair style which we have not noted before. eHr dress is also fancy with a ruffled collar. The older boy wears a lapel jacket suit and long pants. His little brother ears a cut saejacket with pants tht do not match. The pnbts are interesting. They basically look like long pants which he had ourgrown and if he was standing up they were looking more like long pants. But they look like they may have been cut rather short on purpose. It looks like the beginnining of the knee pants style becoming adopted for younger boys. This was more common in the later-60s than the early-60s. Also notice the white stockings the two younger children wear.

We see more boys wearing suits in the 1860s. Suits in fact were by now standard wear for boys. CDVs appeared in the early 1860s and cabinet cards later in the decade. This has provide an unparalled body of photographic evidence. The number of images was an order of magnitude beyond what was aavailable in the 1840s and 50s with Dags and Ambros. We note many boys just wearing blouses and othe shirt-like garments for portaits in the 1840s and 50s, but by the 60s, boys were mostly wearig suit coats in portraits. The cut-away jacket was a popular style for younger boys. We see them worn with both knee pants and long pants. Knee pants appeared in the 1860s, but mostly for very young boys in fashionable big cities. Long pants were much more common. The boy here is a good example (figure 1). Even quite young boys might wear long pants in the 60s. The collar-buttoning military-style jacket was also popular and almost always worn with long pants. Long pants continued to be the primary type of trousers worn by American boys. They are by far the mjaor style worn by boys during the decade, even younger boys. Virtully all older boys wore long pants.

Created: 2:55 PM 11/19/2017
Last updated: 2:56 PM 11/19/2017