Figure 1.-- This postcard back snapshot shows the Boy Scout basketball team during the 1916-17 school year. The school is unidentifid, but would hbe been a high school, possibly in Caledonia, Vermont. We are not entirely sure about what a Boy Scout team was, but we are guessing the school had intermual teams and the Scouts were one of them. The photigraph is dated January 2, 1917. The boys are Howard. Mitchal, Robb, [Wilks?], and Sylvester. The only full name we have is Milton E. Sylvester. The boys all wear kneesocks except for the boy in front wearing long stockings.

Sports are not generally seen as activities for which long stockings were worn. Sports began to develop while long stockings were commonly worn. In fact there was a confluence of three developments at about the same time in America. First, after the mid-19th century, long stockings bgcame standaerd for both boys and girls. Lomg stockings were also worn in Europe, but in America were virtully universal. Girls wore them woth dresses. Boys wore them with shortened-length pants. Only younger boys wore shortened-length pants at first, but gradully we see oldr and older boys wearing shortened-length pants and long stockings. Second, America continued building its public school syste, along wih Germany the first in the world. And this included more and more secondaty schools that had gym, programs. Both voys and girls might wear long stockings for gym. Third, along with gym, sports became increasingly common. And we see long stockings with sports as well. This was most common with the girls, but we see some boys wearing long stockings with sports. Sports in general and specifically school sports steadily increased in popularity especially by the late-19th and early-20th century. And all of this was not limitd to sports. We see long stockings being worn for beachwear and swiming, especially for girls and women. Only after World War I in the 1920s did long stockings disappear for beachwear.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [Essays] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 12:04 AM 4/8/2017
Last updated: 12:04 AM 4/8/2017