Figure 1.-- This family snapshot shows a boy named Harold. Unfortunately we do not know his last name. We do know that the photograph was taken in 1919, presumably in the family's back yard. Harold wears an emaculate white sailor suit with white long stockings and even white shoes.

The basic conventins established in the 1900s continued in the 1910s. White long stockings were very widely worn by girl. They were less common for boys, but we see younger boys wearing them. Again they were still pre-school boys or younger school-age boys dressing up for formal occassions. A good example is the Nethery boys . Boys probably didn't like them in part because so many girkls wore them. One comment we noted of a boy looking back was on the 1950s TV-show "Leave It to Beaver". Beaver's father Ward Cleaver was played by the actor Hugh Beaumont. He said on one show how much he disliked wearing white long stockings. I'm not sure if those comments came from Beaumont personally or the series writers. But they surely reflect someone looking back on their boyhood clothing, probably in the 1910s. There are numerous examples in the photographic record. We see 5-year old Keith Birtkin wearing a short pants ootfit with white long stockings and strap shoes. We note an America boy photographed about 1910. He is kneeling wearing a tunic suit. The supporters holding up his stockings show. A slightly later photograph (about 1915) shows an American boy of about 10 or 11 years of age with much longer white long stockings. He is wearing a modified Fauntleroy suit. (See figure 2). We see white stockings being worn quite normally during the 1910s as a part of American First Communion ceremonies. Saint Anthony's Church in St. Louis during 1917 has boys wearing such stockings. We see Winhrop Rockefeller wearing white long stockings about 1918-19. We note James Urnsby wearing white stockings with a play army uniform, probably some time in the 1910s. We note boys wearing white long stockings with Olivr Twist suits, tunics, and sailor suits--especially white sailor suits.

Created: 7:08 PM 10/9/2008
Last updated: 1:20 AM 10/28/2010