Figure 1.--This unidentified boy looks to be about 5 years old. He wears an early sailor suits with an added white collar. Note the striped socks anf high-button shoes. We do not know if they were coordinated with the suit. The boy is perched on the arm of an elaborately carved chair with a cane or riding crop in his hand and a straw boater hat resting on the chair beside his feet Notice the short ringlets and double bows. The cabinet card in a rare oval fiormat.

American boys almost always wore sailor suits with long stockings. Even younger boys commonly wore long stockings. Actually this is a helpful dating indicator. White stockings were very common in the 1860s and dark stockings were common by the 1880s The time lines here are difficult to develop because so many portraits are undated. In particular we see children during the the 1870s wearing dark stockings with with colored bands which we have called striped stikings. We see many different striped paterns and wethink colors, but this is difficult to asss from the black abdcwhite photoigraphy bof thec day. We believe that quite a rabnge of colors wer used and not just the blue abd white commonly used for sailor syuit. One might think that striped tockings were not as common with sailor suits gicen the striping used ion sailor suits, but this does nor seem to have been the case. The striped stockings are useful chonolgical indicator. We believe that they were most cimmon in the 1870s, but were still worn uinto the early-1880s. We rarely see socks. It was considered proper to cover the legs of both boys and girls, even younger children. We see white stocking in the 70s. We believe this was a carry-over from the 60s. They were not very common at the end of the decade for sailor suits or otheroutfits..

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Created: 6:29 AM 5/8/2012
Last updated: 6:29 AM 5/8/2012