Figure 1.-- This cabinet card portrait shows the six children of an unidentifi Scottish family at Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. The children look to be about 2-14 years of age.The two younger bots wear collar-buttoning Norfolk suits. Notice the rather small Eton collars. The older boy wears a single breasted vested suit. All the boys wear knickers pants with long stockings. The girls wear similar white dresses. The portarait is undated, but looks to have been taken about 1900. The studio was Sinclair in Kirkwall.

We do not yet have much much information about suits in Scotland, largely becuse of our limited archive. We have begun to collect some informtion. Photography was not as common as it was in America or even England and of course Scotland is a smll country with a limited information. Our information on the 19th century is especially limited. At this time we only have information from the 1860s when CDVs appeared. We see all the various jacket styles popular in England, collar-buttoning jackets, cut-way jackets, Norfolk suits, Faunleroy suits sailor suits. We note both palin and highly decorated suits, sometimes including the pants. Heavy decoration was especially popular in the 1870s. A good example is the Peaccock children in Edinburgh. There is nothing to differebntiate them from their English counterparts. The only basic difference we can see is the destinctive jackets Scottish boys wore with Highlnd kilts. We don't see in the 19th century. many Scottish boys wearing kilt suits. We see Highland kilt outfits, but not kilt suits. Vests were common Boys mostly wore suits with long pants. this begn to change at mid century, but only for younger boys. We see older boys wearing shotened-length pants by the end of the century, including knickers, bloomrer knickers and knee pants. We have more information on on the 20th century. Immediately after the turn-of-the 20th century we continue to see 19th century styles like Norfolk suits. The portrait here is a good example (figure 1). Here After World War I in the 1920s we see motly single breasted suits with vests gradually declining in popularity. Many boys wore blazers. After the 1950s cuits begm to bcome leass common as clothing became increasingly casual.

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Created: 1:42 AM 1/28/2016
Last updated: 7:20 AM 9/1/2023