Figure 1.--Here we see anither unidentifed school portrait, but we know it was taken in September 1928, the beginning of the school year. Notice all the boys, but one are wearing overalls. And most look brand new to start off the school year. The children here look better off than in many of these rural photographs. A lot had to do with the community where the schools were located. A British reader writes, "Bright sparks every one. Look like mum made sure they would be well turned out for the photograph. The school clobber is practical."

All this changed in the 20th century. Unlike the 19th century, there is an enormous photographic record of American schools throughout the 20th century. And we see it at individual schools. And this occurred almost entirely at rural schools. While the change in American school wear 20th century was dramatic, but not right at the turn-of-the 20th century. As best we can tell, overalls only became a major American school garment in the late-1900s decade. This is when we begin to see them at school. And at the same time city boys began switching from knee pants to knickers. And we are not yet sure why such major changes occurred and in such a short time frame. We are not sure why children, almost entirely boys, suddenly began wearing overalls to school. It dies not appear to have been an economic matter. The 1910s were boom years for American farmers. We see very few children wearing overalls to school in the early- and mid-1900s decade. Suddenly we see quite a number of boys wearing them in the late-1900s, but only at rural schools. Before this you could not tell if you were looking at rural or city school children, unless you could see their school in the background. After this,m it was easy to tell just by looking at how they were dressed. This is the same time for some reason we see knickers appearing and replacing knee pants. This change was mostly at urban schools and you generally don't see rural kids wearing knickers. We see lots of overalls, but rarely knickers. And by the early-1910s we see large numbers of boys wearing overalls to school throughout rural America. It is understandable, overalls were sturdy, practical and inexpensive. While economic conditions boomed in the 1910s, they crashed in the 1920s and 30s. Rural areas experienced a depression a decade before urban areas. A part of the equation is that school children, especially rural children were less likely to be dressed up for school as had been the case in the 19th century. Overalls were very common as American school wear during the 1910s-30s and we still see in the early-40s, but only at rural schools. We note countless examples of these rural schools with the boys wearing overalls. We do not see them at city schools. There was a stark difference between rural and city schools. We do see them, however, at small towns in rural areas. Overalls declined in popularity during the 1940s as differences between urban and rural children began to disappear. States were closing small rural schools and consolidating them for financial purposes. At the same time farm income was rising. And many farm people good paying jobs at munition factories during World War II. Many wanted to keep factory jobs. It is at this time, after World War II in the late-40s when jeans appeared at school. Jeans proved popular with children, even girls began wearing them.--although at first to a lesser extent. This was in part because of Hollywood as well as World War II. American kids began seeing their cowboy movie heroes wearing jeans, but never bib-front overalls. At the same time, the military during the War began issuing jeans for work wear. Even before the War, states began closing down small rural schools and bussing farm children to town schools. And the farm kids involved no longer wanted to wear overalls, especially at school--they would have been teased as hicks. Jeans appeared in primary schools as boys wear (1950s) and despite some resistance by school authorities finally in high schools (1960s). Girls were slower to adopt jeans, but when they did designer jeans appeared (1970s). Overalls made the transition from utilitarian rural wear, to hig fashion city wear.

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Created: 1:02 AM 12/11/2023
Last updated: 3:56 PM 12/11/2023