Figure 1.--In the first half of the 19th century, most of the boys wear kilts were Scottish, ptrimarily Sciottish boys in the Highlands. Thanks to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, this began to change. We see boys in other countruies wearinjg kilt outfits. This was niot just Englnd but also continentl Europe and America. Actualy. kiltb outfits became a major American style for younger boys. More american boys were wearing kilt outfits than Scottish boys in the second half of the 19th century. This unidentified Detroit boy is unidentified, He was probably photographed in the 1880s. He looks tobbe about 5v yeats old.

The British outlawed the kilt in Scotland after Culloden (1746) . We are not entirely sure how severly this edict was enforced and if it extended to children. We believe that gradually British enforcemrnt became less severe. AndEnglish attitudes towards the Scotts gradually changed with literary giants like Sir Walter Scott helping to reshape the Scottish image. We have very little information, however, as to what extent boys were wearing kilts in Scotland during the early-19th centuty. We know that Scottish regiments wore kilts, but we are less sure to what extent men and boys were wearing kilts in the Highlands. And it is only in the Higlasnds trhat the kilt was orn, not only in Scotland, but England and other countrues as well. One of the few clues we have is a Turner portrait showing an upper-class Edinburgh boy wearing a kilt (1822). At about the same time that Victoria and Albert began dressing the Princes' in kilts we begin to have photogrphy to record a record (1840s). And we begin to see large numbers of images by the 1860s with the CDV. We note substantial numbers of boys wearing a variety of kilt garments. This increases makedly in the 1860s with the appearance of the CDV. Thus we begin to see a true picture of the various kilt garments and how common they were. Especially notable is how popular kilt suits become in the Unitd States by the 1870s at least afor boys from prosperous families. The studio photography doe not, however, give us a good idea as to just how common the kilt was among Scottish boys. We know some Scottish boys dressed up in kilts, bur we do not know to what extebt boys wore them for everyday life or to what extent working-class boys wore them.

The 1800s

Industrial advances and wealth accumulated from the trade of tobacco, sugar, skaves, and cotton transforming Britiain and this inckuded Scotland. This ked ti the begiunning of mnakidern urban Scotland at the turn of the 19th century. The country began the shidt rural overty to a more affkuent urba society. Growing owns, massive factories, and even heavy industry took hold. Mining, shipbuilding and textiles were very important to Scotland’s development at this time. The kilt-clad Scottish regiments performed brilliantly in the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). The Scotts before the Napoleonic War had a still very negative image among the English, as a backward, uncooth if not traterous people. This image changed radically during the War. The Scottish regiments became the shick troops of empire. And by the 1810s the Scottish Revival was well underway led by authors like Robert Butns and Sir Walter Scott. We do not, however have a good idea as o how common kilts were in Scotland, even in the Highlands.

The 1820s

Until the 1820s the kilt was a Scottish garment. King George IV in 1822 traveled to Scotland and wore the kilt. Wevare not sure about the Stuarts, but none of the images we have noted, including those of the children show them wearing kilts. George IV was the first British monarch weknow of to have worn the kilt. It was a political statement to make the monarch more popular in Scotland. A painting of the event show a kilted boy at St. Giles. I am not sure, however, how common it was for boys to wear the kilt in the 1820s. The boys placement and dress suggest he was from a wealthy family. Certainly he was dressed especially for the occasion. We are not sure what he and other Scottish boys normally wore. We believe that the kilt was only worn to ny extent in the Hughlands. Thus the story of the kilt was still only a Scottish story. It us not clear of the boy in the turner portait was a Higlanddr or Lowlandr, but clearly came from a well-todo family. We also notice kilts and tartan dresses as well as tartan trimmed tunics being used as a school uniform in Robert Owen's New Lanark school.

The 1830s

Until the reign of William IV and his famous visit to Edinburgh, no self respectful city dwelling Scot would refer to a kilt as part of his national dress. The kilt belonged to the 'wild Irish' as both the English, and majority of Scots, described both Irishmen outside The Pale and 'Scottish' Highlanders. [Freemantle] We have very little information about how common the kilt was in Scotland anas far as we can tell it was no worn outsdide of Scotland to any extent. This would change, howebver as Pticess Victoria which had acquired a love of Scotland through reading, assended to the British throne (1837).

The 1840s

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Couburg (1840). It was clearly a blosoming romance. The Princes Royal was born before the year was over. And the first orince--Bertie as born (1941). Queen Victoria was noted for the fashions chosen for the princes. The clothing chosen for the royal children had a huge impact on children's fashions in England and other countries, including America. The Queen in the 1840s began dressing the princes in Highland kilts. The kilts worn by Prince Albert Edward (future Edward VIII) in particular had a huge fashion impact. This helped identify the kilt for the first time as a suitable garment for boys. And we begin to see the kilt and other Scottish dress bveung wion outside the Highlands. All of Victoria's and Albert's boys wore kilts, both for formal state occassions and for casual wear when vacationing at Balmoral. Bertie was the first British royal to wear kilts. No other earlier English royal ever wore a kilt. We are not even sure if any Scottish prince wore kilts until Bonnie Prince Charlie and we are not sure he wore kilts as a boy. We also see a wealthy family styling themselves the Mckays departing the Highlands for New Zealand in 1844. How long they wore kilts once swe got to New Zealand we do not know. Two of the four boys wore kilts, the other two a dress and a tunic. They wanted their departure memorialized in a Highland scene despite the fact they left from London. Victoria and Albert would dress the princes at times in kilts, but unlike their successors would not commonly dress them alike. We are not sure when Bertie first wore kilts, but it was probably not until mid-decade atv the eraliest. This means that the McKay family probavly reflects Scottish children's fashions, still unimpacted by riyal influences, We believe that the royal family's fashion choices for thrir children did begin to affect chuldren fashions in Britain, America and other countries by the end of the decade, but we cannot yet confirm this in the photographic record. Commercial; photography was developed in 1839. Our English an Scottish asrchive is very limited. We have a more substantial American archive, but so far have not yet found an image of a boy wearing a kilt outfit. We do note that Victoria's painting showing Bertie wearing a kilt was done in 1849.

The 1850s

Scittish Highland boys were wearing kilts in the 1850s. Scotland was experiencing extraordinary growth and change in the mid-19th centuy. A comiunation of the Scottish poets, Scottish academics, and the performance of the Scottish regimnents in America and more importantly the Napolenomic Wars changed the image of Scotland in England. And the English Princess as a result of Victoroa's infatuation with Scotand cemented the new attitudes. These new attitiudes were well, established by mid-century. Scotland itself was changing. The railriad reached Anereen up the coast from Edinnurgh (1850). James Young patented a method of distilling kersoscene (paraffin) from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry. This does not sound like much today, but kersoemne at the time was the principal use of hydrocarbons other than coal. It was used for home lighting. Whale oil had begun to decline because of the depletion of whale populations. Scottish industry was flourishing. People were flocking to urban areas. Overcrowding was became a serious problem. Much has been written about urban poverty. Dicken's movels are famous. Much less has been written anout rural poverty. Obviously, rural people would not have flocked to the city if comditions has not been better than in the country. Scotland was necoming a major processor of jute. The clearances begun a century earlier were declining. The 1850s woukd be the last decade of notable clearances. Not unrelated, Ewan MacPhee died in Fort William (1850). He was of Scotland's last great outlaw. We see some unidentified English boys wearing kilt outfits in thv 1850s We note well to do boys dressing up in fancy kilt affairs. We note Lord Elgin, his father of Parthenon fame, with his son Victor Alexander who is wearing a Highland kilt outfit with a back military jacket about 1855. We are not sdure just hiow to identify hi, but an Enlish boy seems the most valid. They apparently had their portrait taken during a trip to Paris. Lord Elgin was Scottish, but the family spent a great deal of time in London and foreign postings. Victor was born in Montreal, Canada. While we have photographic images of well-to-do boys wearing fancy kilt outfits, photography was too expensive for poor country families, especially boys in the Highlands. This means thst photiography although it existed, primarily reveals how boys in comfortable familes were dressed. Photography in the 19th century was studio photography. Now it was possible to go outside the studop to take pgotographs, but this only occrred for really important subjects like the Crimean War. Capturing images of the children of poor Highland families was not one of them. We do, however, have some drawings of the country folk. And we see Irish boys wearing kiits. Most promently we that the kilt fadhio for boys had crossed the Atantic to Americas. We notice two Boston boys wearing kilt outfits about 1855.

The 1860s

We notice ordinary Scottish boys wearing kilts. We do not have a lot of Scottish images from the 19th century yet. We have found one CDV portrait of an unidentified Fife boy wearing a kilt and soran with an irdinary suit jacket and vest. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1860s to us. We also see English boys wearing kilts, butbunlike the Scottish Highland, gthese were noys from families un comfortable circumstances. The Prince of Wales' two boys were born in 1864 and 1865. The eldest son was Prince Eddy. We know that both Prince Eddy and Prince George wore kilts as boys, although we are not surec about at whast ages. We think largely to please their grandmother Queen Victoria. We are not sure when they began wearing kilts. Queen Victoria would have insisted on it at least when they visited Balmoral. We are not sure what the Princess of Wales thought about the kilt. Our earliest photograph of Eddy and George wearing kilts dates from the 1870s when the boys were 12-13 years old. And we see ordiary boys, if mostly from well-to-fo families wearing various kilt outfits in thev 1860s. We notice a few French boys wearing kilt outfits in the 1860s. The kilt suit had become an imprtant style for younger boys by the 1860s. We also note American boys wearing Scottish headwear like Glengaries, but not always with kilts. A good excample is an --uidentified American boy, we believe in the 1860s.

The 1870s

The kilts popularized by Queen Victoria continued to be a popular style for boys. It was most popular in Britain, but fashion magazines show that it was also worn in France. The style reached America in the 1840s, but it was not until the 1870s that large numbers of American boys--most with no or only the most tenous conection to Scotland--were outfitted in kilts. It seemed an ideal choice for mother who were not yet ready to breech their sons. The kilt was the height of fashion for boys in England and France. It also crossed the Atlantic. It was not the Highland kilt, however that proved popular in America, but rather the kilt suit that had virtually no relationship with a true kilt, other than both were skirted garments.

The 1880s

HBC has noted quite a few British images of boys wearing kilts. We have little information about these images. We know that some were Scottish. We are not sure how common this was and what the conventiions were. We also know that some English boys also wore them. Queen Victoria helped popularize Scottish fashions early in her rein. A British contributor reports that boys from Scottish families domiciled south of the border were often dressed in kilts. HBC wonders if this was just for formal occasions. Some English boys might have also been dressed in kilts as a popular fashion. We note, for example, that English illustrator Ernest Sheppard, of Winnie the Poo fame, had a confrontation with another boy at a party. The other boy was dressed in a kilt and took exception to Ernest's Little Lord Fauntleroy suit. Ernest judged that a boy in a kilt had no right to take exception with is Fauntleroy suit. A terrible rowe ensued. The punch bowl was upset and Ernest was sent home in disgrace. Now the other boy may have been Scottish, as the incident occurred in London, more likely the boy was English. Unlike America boys who commonly wore kilt suits, British boys more commonly wore actual kilts with Highland regalia.

The 1890s

Our Scottish archive is very limited. We have found images of Scottish boys weaing Highland kilt outfits during the 1890s. We notice two principal jacket styles. One was a black military jacket. The other was different styles of tweed jackets. These Highland kilt outfits were worn with different kinds of collars, including Eton collars. Many of the portraits show boys wearing black military-styled jackets with Eton collars. A good example of a Scottish boy wearing a formal kilt outfit is Geoffrey Keen although he dos not have an Eton collar. We notice an unidentified boy wearing a tweed cut away jacket abnd vest with an Eton collar and the Highland regalia like a back slash and fancy pin. Most of the images we have of Scottish boys wearing kilts during the 1890s are formal studio portraits. These are useful to see the garments, but not the conventions for wearing them. We are not sure to what extent boys in Scotland wore kilts for school or informally after school and what they wore with the kilt for these more informal occassions. Thus we are not entirely where these kilt outfits they were worn. We suspect kilt outfits were for dressing up or school. Of course some of the regalia outfits like a back sash would not have been worn to school. Kilts were presumably more common in the Highlands and worn more casually which might nmean kilts without a jacket. Prince George's two oldest children were born in 1894 and 1895. As younger children the boys wore dresses and sailor suits after breaching. We are not sure when the boys began wearing kilts, but we do not have any photographs of them in kilts until after the turn of the century. We note a few Belgian boys<./a wearing kilt otfits in the late-19th century. We continue to see English boys wearing kilt outfits in the 1890s. Kilt suits continued to be a major stylec for younger American boys in the 1890s. It would be the last decade in which they were a masjor style. This suggests that this was also done during the 1890s. We notice girls in the 1890s wearing kilt-like skirts.

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Sources

Freemantle, Clive. E-mail message, November 11, 2003.

Created: February 25, 1999
Last updated: 9:24 PM 10/13/2012