Figure 1.--This French boy in the 1870s appears to have worn the his school uniform vfor his First Communion. Note the short hair and rather plain First Comminion sleeve bow.
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Figure 1.--This French boy in the 1870s appears to have worn the his school uniform vfor his First Communion. Note the short hair and rather plain First Comminion sleeve bow. |
We note one boy in the 1870s wearing what looks to be his school uniform. Our knowledge of French school uniforms in the 1870s is still incomplete. We do know that France was badly mauled in the Franco-Prussian War, causing a great soul searching on France's part. The new republican government introduced school smocks at this time. We also think that many schools had military uniforms, but we are not sure just what kind of schools had the military uniforms. We do not think that these were necessarily military schools. Some French thought, however, that more military discipline was needed to prepare for a future war with Germany. The boy shown here does not look to have a new suit for first communion, but rather his ordinary school uniform.. He is wearing a First Communion shoulder bow, but a rather primitive one. We do not know if these bows were a new inovation in the 1870s or perhaps his parents could not afford a fancy one. The later is unlikely given the fact he was having a portarit taken in the 1870s. The cost of a portrait was declining, but still not cheap. Note that the boy in this 1870s portrait is wearing long trousers (figure 1). Kneepants became increasing common in the 1860s and by the 1870s were being widely worn by French boys. Many of the schools with military uniforms appear to have retained long trousers for the boys, at least in the 1870s.
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