Figure 1.--This CDV is undated, but was probably taken in the late-1860s or early-70s. The portrait was taken at the Notman studio in Montreal. He wears a black velvet kilt suit, notice the stripe detailing. He has brass buttons and a stock-like bow. He is holding a book. The Notman pencilled ID number of 70806. If you contact the Notman Archives at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal, you can get the name of this boy. The Notman Collection is arranged using the original numbers assigned by Mr. Notman, and any numbered Notman photographs found, for example, in family albums can be identified easily by using the card files, both numerical and alphabetical.
Canadian Kilts: Kilt Suits
As with boys in America, England, and Scotland, Canadian boys also wore kilt suits. We know less about Canadian kilt suits than these from other countries because our Canadian archive, especually for the 19th century is limited. We do note some well-to-do Canadian boys wearing kilt suits. We do not know how common it was. We do not think it was quite as common as in the United States, although we camn not yet substantiate that. We can not, confirm this until we have expanded our Cananadian archive. As far as we can tell, the conventions for kilt suits were fairly similar in all the different English-speaking countries where thry were worn. Most of the images we have found are pre-school boys, but we believe some boys wore them to even 7-8 years. In Canada ethnicity is an important issue. we are not sure if French Canadian boys also wore kilt suits. We note a varity of styles. We begin to see kilt suits in Canada in early CDVs (1860s). We are not sure about the 1850s. We have virtually no Dags and Ambros which would tells us about the 1850s. We have little information about accompanying clothes such as headwear, beckwear, hosiery, and foowear. The portrait here looks to be from about 1870 (figure 1). Notice thast the skirt is not pleated. We see kilts suits in Canada through to the 1890s as well as the early-1900s for pre-school boys.
Prevalence
As with boys in America, England, and Scotland, Canadian boys also wore kilt suits. We know less about Canadian kilt suits than these from other countries because our Canadian archive, especually for the 19th century is limited. We do note some well-to-do Canadian boys wearing kilt suits. We do not know how common it was. We do not think it was quite as common as in the United States, although we camn not yet substantiate that. We can not, confirm this until we have expanded our Cananadian archive.
Conventions
As far as we can tell, the conventions for kilt suits were fairly similar in all the different English-speaking countries where thry were worn.
Age
Most of the images we have found are pre-school boys, but we believe some boys wore them to even 7-8 years.
Ethnicity
Styles
We note a varity of styles.
Chronology
We begin to see kilt suits in Canada in early CDVs (1860s). We are not sure about the 1850s. We have virtually no Dags and Ambros which would tells us about the 1850s. The portrait here looks to be from about 1870 (figure 1). Notice thast the skirt is not pleated. We see kilts suits in Canada through to the 1890s as well as the early-1900s for pre-school boys.
We have little information about accompanying clothes such as headwear, beckwear, hosiery, and foowear. We do not have enough information to assess the other garments besised the kilt suit itself. All we see here is a small collar and bow which helps to date the portrait to the 1870s. Another CDV we think from the 1870s shows another boy wearing a kilt suit. He is wearing socks rather than stockings. We virtually never see that in America. All of the images we have found of kilt suits show the boys wearing stockings. We note a few English ans Scottish boys wearing socks with kilt suits. we think a factor here is that British mothers had a better concept of what a kilt was. And boys wore socks with kilts, not stockings. As a result we see some British boys wearing socks with kilt suits. The same seemds to be the case in Canada, although our sample is still too small to be sure. we alsp motice button shoes hich were especially common in america. We think that the Brotish influence was dominant in th mid-19th century, but as the American economy grew that american influences became more important, espeially the turn of the 20th century.
