Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified boy wearing a Norfolk short pants suit. He looks to be about 5 years old. He is walking pn pavement stones in what may be a park or or wealthy family's property. There is no information associated with the snapshot. We would guess it was taken in the late-1930s.

There is no information associated with this snapshot and as the bavkground is trees and shubs, thereare few clues beyond the boy and his clothes. The photograh was offered by an American dealer. And the boy could be American, but we do not think that the photograph was taken in America. There are several reasons for this. We see few American and British boys wear Norfolk jackets in the 1930s. German suit jackets were more varied. The length of the suit shorts is another factor. Short pants worn with suits tended to be knee length in both America and Britain during the 1930s. This leads us to Germany. Here we do see boys wearing both sandals and strap shoes. We also see boys wearing shorter-cut shorts, like the shorts the boy here is wearing. Actually length varied, but shorter-cut shorts were common. The knee socks also look more like the ones we see in Grmny than in America and Britain. Perhps the most important reason we thing the boy is German is the strap shoes. School age Amrican boys did not commonly wear sandals like British boys and strap shoes were even less common. The situation was somewhat different in Britain, but strap shoes wee more of an upper-class thing for boys before they began school.

Created: 6:58 PM 12/27/2016
Last updated: 6:58 PM 12/27/2016