Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentifuied boys wearing long stockings The cabinet card is not dated, but looks like the early-1890s to us. They are clearly not black long stockings. Notice the boy on the left and the light shade of his stockings. They are not white, but we are not sure about the color.

while it is often possible to identify black and white stockings in old photographs, coloes are very difficult. Black was clearly the most common color. We rarely see boys wearing whote long stockings in the 1890s. Other colors are much more difficult, but there clearly were other colors. This can bd conformed in catalogs, literary refferences, and color lithography. We believe that blue, brown, grey, and red stockings were worn. We can also see it in the photographic record, although the actul color shade can not be identified. Red is aparticularly tricky cilor as it shows up as a very dark shade in period portraits. And it can be done in shades that are not bright red, but rather brownish reds. Another problem in assessing old photographs is that some off-black stocking may be faded black stockings. Other phtographs show shades that are far enough off black that they are clearly aifferent color. Most of the stockings we have found are dark and differentiating colors is impossible. We note a few boys wearing light-colored stockings. Some are very light shades, but clearly not white. We are not sure what colors are involved here. We think they may be grey. Light browns or beige is a nother possibility. We notice the oldest Whitney boy, for example, wearing a different color of stockings. He is the boy on the left and he wears stockings that are not the standard black--apparently brown or dark tan. We can't identify the color with certainty because of the black abd white photogeaphy of the day. Later in the 20th century beige shades became popular, but are nitat all sure this was the case in the 1890s yet. Here a factor was probably modesty.

Created: 2:40 AM 3/22/2005
Last updated: 11:11 PM 9/14/2012