Figure 1.--These children at a Connecticut public school, probably in the 1870s show a wide varirty of clothes--but none of the fancy styles that were to become so popular in the next decade. Many boys wear straw hats.

The United States was a largely rural country at the beginning of the 19th century and was still largely rural even at the time of the Civil War (1861-65). By that time, industrialization had begun and was greatly stimulate by the War. Even by the rnd of the century, bout half the population was rural. This of course meant, that rural schools were a very important part of the country's educational system. The United States in the 19th Century probably had the world's most progressive system of public education for children in rural areas. American school children have not worn school uniforms. There are some exception for urban schools, but virtually no rural children wore school uniforms. The clothing worn by boys at these schools reflected their ordinary dress, as few boys had mutiple clothing changes. The clothes in rural and urban schools could be quite different. This did not begin to change until after World War II (1939-45).

Rural Eucation

The United States was a largely rural country at the beginning of the 19th century and was still largely rural even at the time of the Civil War (1861-65). By that time, industrialization had begun and was greatly stimulate by the War. Even by the rnd of the century, bout half the population was rural. This of course meant, that rural schools were a very important part of the country's educational system. The United States in the 19th Century probably had the world's most progressive system of public education for children in rural areas. Early Federal land legislation had provisions for assigning land parcels for school as did the Homestead Act of 1864. The principal of free public education was well established in America at a time when the British conceived of public education as dangerous or only appropriate as charity schools for indigents. In contrast, in the United States a portion of each parcel of land was reserved to finance a public school. As a result, as the frontier moved west, public schools were automatically financed from the initial settlement. The early rural schools were all elementary schools--usually one room schools where children of all ages were educated together. Few rural children in the 19th century progressed to high schools, which were all located in cities.

Chronology

Most Americans lived in rural areas until the 20th century. Until the late-19th century and the expanding industrialization and urbanization of the country, the rural population was the vast majority of the population. Even so, until the 19th century, most of the schools were in towns and the relatively few cities. At this time, America not only launched one of the first public school system, but building schools in rural areas where most of the population was located. It is diffucult to follow all of this visually, but with the invention of photography this becomes possible. It took time for school photography to become important. Early photographic processes (Dags and Ambros) did not permit school photography of any imortance, because the prints produced were a one shot affair (1840s-50s). This changed with the albumen process producing negatives that could produced multiple prints in mumbers (1860s). The first print type was the CDV, but cabinet cards were larger and thus more suitable for school poprtraits. School photography soon became an imoprtant tradition. We first see impages from city schools, but images from rural schools also befin to appear (1880s). Given the Protestant foundation of the country there was a pronounced interest in education even in the colonial era. Bible reading was an important part of the Protestant Reformation. America began as 13 British Atlantic Coast colonies (17th century). We thus inherited British laws and conventions. This meant there was no formal system of public education. Britain in fact would lag behind Germany and several other European countries in establish a system of public education. As a result there was no colonial system of public education. There were, however many ways as in England that children were educated, mostly at their parents expense. These included: parent paid tuition and charitable contributions. Schools began to appear in tins and cities. These included church schools, traveling school masters, charity schools, fee paying boarding schools, dame schools, tutoring, home schooling, and apprenticeships. As the individual colonies developed, much more attention was given to schooling in the northern colonies than the southern colonies because of greater Protestant foundation in the North and Anglican foundation in the South (18th century). Some Northeastern towns and cities by the time of the Revolution (1776-81) had begin establishing publicly funded schools. This was, however, far from the norm. There were not many public schools or rural schools either in the colonial period or the early Republican Era. Nor were the states yet playing an important role. Even so a huge step toward both was taken by the much maligned Articles of Confederation. Congress passed the Northwest Ordinances (1785-87). This provided that Federal and in new states wold be sold in blocks that included land for a school. This was land where the school could be built and land that could be sold to build the school. The Northwest Ordinances did not cover the southern states. It did not immediately create public schools or rural schools. But it meant that as the Frontier moved west, free schools would be created in rural areas. Then as the Federal Constitutions was ratified (1789), education would be a matter for the states which began establishing public schools. The laws and cultural foundation, however, for building a public school system (19th century). This would be one of the first major steps America took on its own without a British foundation. There would be it would be no national educational system, but rather separate public school systems in each states. And there would be schools in rural areas where most Americans lived. Important figures like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and others advocated for publicly funded schools, but this was a relatively new concept and would take time to build out and take hold. This process was aided by all the rural schools being created as a result of the Northwest Ordinances. They would take time to develop, but by the 1830s America had one of the first public school systems in the world. Only the German states had a more developed system. Britain would be a laggard.

Figure 2.--This is a typical rural primary school class in the 1920sin rural America. This is a good indicator of how rural children dressed at the time. City boys would have likely been dresses mostly in knickers.

Country Trends

We note small, one room one-room rural schools in several countries. They were primary schools. They were especially prominant in America, but we also see them in other countries, including Australia, Briain, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and other countries. They were not very common in Europe. The prevalence is in large part affected by land use patterns. Farmers in America tended to live on their land. In Europe where land holdings tended to be smaller and set centuries earlier, people tended to live in small rural villages close to their land. Thus the children attended village schools rather than small one-room rural schools. This was possible not only because of land use pattrns, but because there was provision for public schools in the land sales by the Federal Government. The economics of operating small schools as opposed to bussing children to larger clothes has necesitated closing many of these schools, but are still found in a rabnge of countries/colonies with small populations.

Rural School Clothes

The clothing worn by boys at these schools reflected their ordinary dress, as few boys had mutiple clothing changes. The clothes in rural and urban schools could be quite different. One interesting image, apparently, from a Connecticut school in the 1870s shows the boys wearing suspenders, jackets or shirts, one boy has a jacket with plaid collar, a lots of broad-brimmed straw hats. No one wears a fancy Fauntleroy-like suit that was to become so popular in the next decade. Some of the girls appear to be wearing pinafores over their dresses. American children in the early part of the 20th century dressed more formally for school than children do today--at least in urban areas. Children did not, however, have the extensive wardrobes that they have today. Rural children dressed much less formaly. Overalls and bare feet were common for the boys, at least in the warmer months before cold weather and snow made coats and boots necessary. Of course this varied substantially by region. Cold weather clothes were less necessary in the South. We do not see many overalls in the 19th century, but suddenly about 1910 they becane very common. Clothing styles at rural schools began to change significantly in the 1940s. The prosperity of the post-World war II period brought incrased income to farm families after the bleak Depression years (1929-39). Rural children began dressing in the same jeans and flannel shirts urban boys wore. Overalls and barefeet became increasingly less common. Another factor affecting rural education is that many school districts began closing small rural schools. The economics of modern education made it prohibitively expensive to maintain small, isolated schools for a limited number of children. Instead, school districts consolidated the small schools into larger schools set in rural town centers. At these schools there was little difference between the clothes worn by rural and town boys.

Figure 3.--An idealized look at a small rural school and how the children dressed during the 1930s. Notice the three boys pictured dressed in overalls, dungarees (jeans), and knickers. In reality, rural boys did not commonly wear knickers and jeansere basically unknown. It was overalls that were standard.

Individual Schools

We know little about rural schools in the early-19th century before th invention of photoptgraphy. Even after the invention of photgraphy, images are quite limited for the mid- and late-19th century. We have, however, quite a number of images from the early-20th century which give us a look at these schools before they began to disappear after World War II. The images not only provide information about rural schools, but about fashion trends in rural areas. Children in these schools did not wear uniforms. Fashion trends can thus be assessed by looking at what the children were wearing to school. Unfortunately many of the available images are not identified or dated. The fashions, however, help us estimate the dates. Some but not all show the school building in the background. More rare are photographs taken inside the schools.

Navigate the Relate Boys Historical Clothing Style Pages
[Main country page]
[Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Lederhosen] [Knee socks] [Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers] [Blazer [School sandals]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Pages
[Return to the Main School Page]
[Return to the Main National School Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Poland] [Singapore] [Scotland]
[Singapore] [United States]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[About Us]
[Return to the Main Ameruican public elementary/prumary school page ]
[Return to the Main United States page ]
[Activities] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Debate] [Economics] [Garment] [Gender] [Hair] [History] [Home trends] [Literary characters]
[School types] [Significance] [Transport and travel [Uniform regulations] [Year level] [Other topics]
[Images] [Links] [Registration] [Search] [Tools]
[Return to the Historic Boys' School Home]

Created: June 5, 1999
Last updated: 9:00 PM 6/9/2023