Figure 1.--This Keystone magic lantern slide is entitled 'Group of Dutch school children, Holland'. It would have been taken riund the turn of the 20th century. We beklieve by this time, Dutch children only dressed this way in a few islanted villages, but it would have been more common earlier in the century. Magic lattern companies like Keystone often picked up on picturesque scenes.

We do not yet have much information on Dutch schools during the 19th century. We see some images from the late-19th century showing children wearing traditional outfits going to school. We do not think this was very common at the time, but was probably common earlier in the 19th century. There were regional differences. The best known type of folk dress which came to be seen as a kind of national costume, came from the southern province of Volendam. We see these styles persisting in few isolated villages. We are not sure why some villages continued to persist with these styles. Tourism may be involved, even in the 19th century, but there may be another factor. We even see these clothes being worn in the 20th century, but increasingly for tourists mostly by women. Styles in Dutch cities and towns were more like styles in Germany and Belgium, especially by the end of the century.

Created: 10:32 AM 10/11/2018
Last updated: 10:32 AM 10/11/2018