Figure 1.-- Here we see a well-posed family cabuinet card portrait taken at home. We wonder if the studio had someone taking home portraits. TThe chldren look to be about 8-13 years old. The boy wears a vested knickers suit. The girls wear smocked dresses with decorative floral collars. The portrait is undated, but the mount suggests the 1900s decade. The greyish mount color would certainly be the 1900s in America, we suspect the same is true in England. Thestudio was W. Bond on Norwich.

We still quite a few English boys wearing knicker suits at the turn-of-the 20th century. Our best source of information for general prevalence are state school portraits. Knee pants suits seen more common than knickers, especially for younger boys. Boys in state schools did not werar inororm, only their regular clothes. You can observe this in school portraits. Knickers were also common for older boys. Here we think that there was a social-class component. The unidentified boy on the previous page is wearig a knickers suit, we think in the 1900s. Most boys left school at about age 13 years. The secondary systtem was not well developed. Few working-class boys attended secondary schools, at the time -- primarily the grammar schools. We also see them in private schools, both the preparatory and public (elite private boarding) schools. The private schools had uniforms.

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Created: 2:00 AM 11/5/2021
Last updated: 2:00 AM 11/5/2021