Figure 1.--Here we see a postcard back portrait of three English siblings, two boys and a girl. Theyb look tobe about 4-9 years old. One of boys wears a turtle-neck sweater. Notice the shoulder buttons.

A sweater is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body and garments like blouses and shirts. Sweater is the generic American term. It is understood in Britain, but more often terms likepullover, jumper, or jersey are used. The terms have different meanings in American English. In America 'jumper' refers to a style of girl's sleeveless dress, worn over a blouse or shirt, and 'jersey' refers to a knit shirt, especially if part of an sports uniform. The most common English knitted outer-wear garment as in most countries were sweaters, especially the countries with cold weather. England does not have especially cold winters, but the variable weather even during the day makes the sweater a very useful garment. We are not sure, however, how common sweaters were in the 19th century. They are not prominent in the photographic record, but that may be because mothers used to dress boys up in their best outfits for formal portraits. We do indeed see more images of boys wearing sweaters with the advent of amateur family photography and the snapshot after the turn-of-the 20th century. We note, for example, one unidentified boy photographed about 1905. Sweaters for young boys might have buttons at the shoulders to make it easier to help them dress and undress. After World War I (1914-18) their are countless images of English boys wearing sweaters. Some English boys during the 1920s began wearing sweaters, which tended to to be made longer than now, over their pants--usually short pants. Later the sweaters became shorter and were cut at the waist and even tucked inside the pants. The sweater was an important school garment, often dome in grey. Sweaters were usually solid colors until after World War II.

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Created: 7:40 PM 1/23/2024
Last updated: 7:40 PM 1/23/2024