Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows an unidentified bo wearing aeacoat. It was often worn with sailor suits, but here we see some Fauntleroy touches. The portrait was taken at the A.E. Dumble studio in Rochester, New York. It is difficukt to make out the cap, but it is not a sailor cap. The portrait was taken in 1895. We are not sure when the pea coat first appeared, but this tells us that they were being worn by the late-19th century. The jacket here looks to be made in suiting mateial rather thabn the hevier fbric used for actual pea coats.

The popularily and avaialbility of the different types of coats worn by American boys varied chronologically. This is a topic we are still developing. Overcoats seem particularly common in the 19th century. We see buffalo coats after the Civil War, but these seem more common for adukts than boys. A factor here is not only warmth, but formality. An overcoat is often worn when the boy is wearing a suit. We still see them in the 20th century, but not very commonly for boys. We still see boys from affluent families wearing overcoats in the early-20th century. This becomes less and less common after World War I, even with well-to-do boys. I don't believe I had an overcoat growing up at mid-century. Some well-to-do boys msy have had them, but not after the 70s. Here a factor was the fact that suits were becoming much less common. Both pea coats and duffle coats were popular coat styles. We see pea coats in the late-19th century. We are not sure when duffle coats first appeared. Both were worn through the post-World War II era. We do see boys wearing shorter coats in the 20th century, some of which were called ski jackets by the 1970s. Ski jackets were very popular in the late-20th centuey. We have not yet developed informatiuon on the 21st century. As gar as we can tell, ski jackets continue to be very popular.

Created: 11:50 PM 1/12/2012
Last updated: 11:50 PM 1/12/2012