Figure 1.-- Here we see a groupm of American Sunday School children, we believe in the 1940s. The girls all wear prim dresses. The boys' outfits varyu. We see some boys wearing simpkle button-on shorts sets. Ohervboys wearing Etin suits.

We do not yet have much information about Sunday school in the 19th century. We know that people dressed formally in the late-19th century. And Church was a an event for which people put on their best clothing. The term 'Sunday best' appeared at this time. We believe that children were also dressed upin their best clothes for Sunday school, although we are not entirely sure how common Sunday school was during the century. We suspect that many children cane dressed in kilt suits, Fauntleroy suits, and other formal wear. Formal dress continued to be de rigor for the early-20th century. Available images confirm that this was the case. We see school age boys wearing fancy blouses without suit jackets during the summer at the turn of the century. The photographic record is much more complete as we now have family snapshots. After World War I we begin to see greater informality. Church and Sunday school outfits followed general trends, although formal attire in here persisted longer ghan in other areas. Boys still mostly wore suits in the 1920s, but we begin to see less formal outfits by the 1930s. More comfortable two piece button-on outfits became common for younger boys. After World War II we see bots aopeararing with perhaps a white shirt perhaps with a tie and dress pants rather than a suit. This varied greatly from family to family. Church was one of the few places where boys might wear suits by the 1970s. Generaly speaking, dress for Sunday school was somewhat more informal than for actual church attendance.

Created: 5:02 AM 6/26/2013
Last updated: 5:03 AM 6/26/2013