Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentuified boys doing their First Communion in identical sailor suits, probably abiut 1910. Wec are not sure about the country involved. The dealer suggests it is American, but itv is hard to tell because it is a cut-down cabinet card. We think they might be Belgian.

We see some boys in Europe doing their First Communion in sailor suits. Al least we see quite a number of boys in the photographic record wearing sailor suits. This seems to have been especially popular in Belgium and France. We see this especially with Belgium. This may reflect a social class bias in the photographic archive. We are less sure for France,. We see some French boys wearing saiklor suits, but for some reason out French archive is not as large as younmight expect for a major country. We don't see this much in England where we do have a substantial archive. Sailor suits for First Communionn was not as common in America and like England we have a substantial photographic record. We see quite a number of children doing First Communion, but they are mostly wearing standard suits with decorative elemens like sleeve ribbons. Again there may be social class factors at play. Most American Catholics were part of the working class, but the American working class was substantially better off than than the European working-class during the 19th and much of the 20th century. American Catholics benefitted from higher wages and living standards. These trends continued into the inter-War era. After World War II we see far fewer boys wearing sailor suits for First Communion. An exception was Spain where we still see boys wearing sailor suits for First Communion in the 21st century. This seems to be a special Spanish tradition. In the 20th century, boys commonly wore sailor suits, especially the early-20th century. This it was not a special First Communion outfit.

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Created: 5:36 PM 12/14/2023
Last edited: 5:36 PM 12/14/2023