Figure 1.--

Closed toe sandals appear to have appeared in England, America, and other countries at the turn of the 20th century. We have a larger archive of American impages at the turn of the century, but believe they were also common in Europe. They become more common in the 1900s. They appear in both formal portraits and informal snapshots. HBC is unsure at this time why the sandal suddenly proved popular in the early 20th century. We note one American boy wearing multiple strap shoes about 1905. These do not havr the ceter support strap. More common were the sandals with one or two cross straps. A portrait of two brothers is a good example. This style seems to have been more common before the turn of the century. Perhaps it was part of the overall shift toward increased informality in dress. We note the children in a rural American family wearing sandals in 1907. We note Arthur Prolux wearing doublre strap sandals in 1908. We note the Avery boys in Washington wearing double strap sandals in 1908 as a kind of play shoe. A reader writes, "I have looked at hundreds of early photographs, and can find few images of double-strap close-toe sandals before the turn of the 20th century." HBC has also found this to be the case. A reader writes, "I have seen ads in the Newark (NJ) Evening News, advertising the barefoot sandal type in the period 1900 to 1910." Illustrators would usually provide an idealized picture seem to use the single strap style with white socks most commonly. We do note published illustrations by Gutmam in 1909. Mostly he depicts songle-strap shoes, but there does appear to be one boy shown wearing "T"-strap sandals. Most of the images we note in the 1900s show children wearing sandals as more of a dressy strap shoe than a casual play sandal. A good example is an English boy wearing white strap shoes. We note an open-style, but it does not seem to have been very common.

Created: 12:08 AM 7/23/2005
Last updated: 7:25 AM 9/23/2006