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World War I was a major inflection point in fashion, this included boys and girls fashion and adult fashion. Fashion and social convention in the 1920s was radically different from those before the War. Kneepants disappeared and boys mostly wore knickers. Younger boys might short pants, but most boys in elementary (primary) school wore knickers. Here there were social class differences. Long stockings were still common, but some boys wore knee socks. More casual styles became popular for an increasing range of activities. This was especially notable by the later parts of the decade. One major shift was substantial differences which developed between the way American and European boys dressed. For some reason this difference was not as notable for girls. Another development was increasing similarities between how boys of different social classes dressed.
This is a tough one. We are not sure if this portrait was taken in the late-1910s or early-1920s. It is a portrait of four siblings, age about 1-12 years. Perhaps readers will have a thought here. An interesting aspect of the portrait is the boy's self belt. We are not sure just when these self belts first appeared. It is obvious that the belt here is not holding up the boy's pants. Notice how slack it is. And you can see the buttons that are hilding up the pants forf this button-on outfit. The portrait also provides a good view of girl's hair styles and dresses. Notice thast all of the children that we can see are wearing long stockings. Three of the children are wearing heavy high-top shoes. Ther older girl wears more dressy "T" straps shoes.
Here we see a white border snapshot of four unidentified individuals, we think about 1920. The look to be siblings, about 10-22 years old. Unfortunately there is no information associated with the snapshot. We think the portait could have been taken in the late-1910s or the early-1920s. There is no information associated wih the snapshot and the background offers no useful clues. The boy in the group looks to be abut 10-11 years old. He wears a patterned knickers suit buckled above the knee and long black stockings.
This is a portrait of Sam Harris with wife and son. The portrait is undated. The reader who provided the portrait dates it to about 1918-20. This is certainly possible. We tend to date in a few years later, although the late-10s is definitely possible. The reason is that the boy is wearing knickers. While knickers were very common for school-age American boys in the 1910s, we notice many younger boys still wearing knee pants. Knickers became more standard for younger boys in the 20s. This e boy, about 6 years old, but we do not know his name. He is dressed all in white--a blouse with sailor blouse, and string tie, above-the-knee knickers, and white long stockings.
Bjerke is not a family name we recognize, but has found it is a Norwegian name. The Bjerke's and Norwegians in general settled in the upper Northwest, especially Minnesota. Here we see the family all dressed up, perhaps in a country outing after church. They may have lived in outer suburbs or in a small town near Minneapolis. We have no details about the family except for the name of the grandfather--Ole Bjerke. It comes from a famnily album originating in Allamakee County, Iowa, primarily Lansing, and most likely owned by Emma Nelson. Nearly all people are of Norwegian origin. Families include N. A. (Nels) Nelson and family of Lansing, Emma Nelson, Walter T. Nelson, Nora Nelson, Klara Nelson, Wilbert Nelson, and Uncle Mike Nelson, the last being from Canton, South Dakota. We note the Elert Bjerke of Minnesota and Helen and Wilma Bjerke of Minnesota. There is no further details about the Bjerke family here. Father presumably took the snapshot. We do not know why mother was not included, we suspect she was a Nelson that Bjerke married. The photograph is not dated, but we would guess was taken in the early-1920s. The clothing, especially the collar-buttoning jackets, short pants and beige long stockings suggest the 1920s. Besides the grandfather, we see six children, four boys and two girls. We thiought the younger boy and girl may be twins, but the girl is older based on the snapshot with mother. They look to be about 5-15 years old. The girls both wear light summer dresses and the trees in the background suggest early spring. The old boys wear lapel suits with ties. the younger boys wear short pants, collar buttoning suits with Norfolk styling. Notice the floppy bows.
Here we see the Newell family, taken somewhere in America about 1919-20. We know nothing about the family except the surname. The three children sitting in the front row (two girls and a boy) all wear black long stockings, virtually universal at this period. Notice the supporter buttons showing at the hem of the smaller girl's dress (or possibly rompers). The little boy also appears to be wearing
rompers. The three older boys, standing in back, are probably wearing above-the-knee knickers with similar black stockings although their lower bodies are concealed in the photo. Two of the boys are wearing what appear to be hand-knitted sleeveless sweaters over colored shirts with ties. The boy in the middle wears a shirt buttoned to the neck but without a tie. He wears a coat sweater
with front buttons and a rolled collar that also might have been home-knitted. The Newells appear to have been a middle class family, living in a somewhat rural community--perhaps even on a farm. They wear simple, practical clothing with home-made elements but have considerable green space around their home. We have no notion of the location except that it was probably the eastern or mid-western United
States. The foliage, clearer in an uncropped version of this photograph, suggests this.
This photo was taken in Pecos, Texas about 1920. It shows the Pruett family which was reportedly quite a wealthy family. We see three boys and a baby. The younger boy looks to be about 6 years old. He wears a blouse, floppy bow, and long short pants and is barefoot. The middle brother looks to be about 13 years old and wears a white shirt with rolled up sleeves and tie. (Short-sleeved shirts were not yet common.) He has knickers and black long stockings. The older brothers looks to be about 17-18 years old. It is a little more difficult to make out his clothes. He wears a colored shirt and tie with what look like knickers and black long stockings. He seems to have added white socks.
The boys in the 1920s mostly wore knickers. Girls wore dresses. Middy blouses were popular for the girls, explaning innpart why many boys stopped wearing them. Men began wearing much more modern looking suits. Younger women wore shorter dresses, but many older women cling to the longer dress lengths. Here we see the grandparents.
Here we have an unidentified American family in thr 1920s. There are three children One boy wears kniclers and the other overalls. A girls wears a basis dress with bloomer knickers. This might be a boy, wearing aunic, but tunics were going out of style in the 1920s and were almost alwats wirn with belts. The centerpiece of this photograph is the covered waggon. By the 1920s, they were a historical curriosity seen mostly i cowboy movies such as Tom Mix films. Some small ones, like the one here might still be used on ranches.
Kathereine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post grew up in a wealthy family. She has provided fascinating insights into her family as she grew up in the 1920s with her older brother Bill in privlidged circumstances.
Here we see the four children of a middle class family. They are sitting on the front porch of their home. The photograph unfortunately is undated. We mught have guessed it was taken in the 1930s, but the fact the older boy is wearing aabove the knee knickers leads us to believe the photigraph is from the 1920s. We do have the na,es and ages of most of the children. We would guess that they are from a city or town somewhere in the northeast or perhaps the eastern mid-West, based on the house style.
This American boy looks to have been photographed in the eraly 1920s about 1921-22. He wears above the knee knickers with long stockings. Notice the lighter weight and trimer fit than long stockings commonly worn in the 1910s. Also notice the light color. The children are Richard and Jeanne Strock (Barnhizer).
This photograph is over exposed, but shows the family of Edwin S. Broussard. At the yime Broussard was the U.S. senator from Louisina. We see his wife and six children in 1921. He was a Spoanish-Americn War veteran and Lousiana progressive politican, running on the Progressive ticket in Theodore Roosevelt' Bull moose camapaign (1912). As the Progssives began migrating to the two major oarties after the 1912 canoaign, Broussard became a Democrat. He served out his brother's term as senator and then was elected on his own (1920 and 26). Louisana was part of the Solid South where only Democrats were elected. Semator Broussard's career more than anything showed the power and influence of Governor Huey P. Long. Without Long;s support, he failed to be remomimated (1932). The children are all dressed uo for what lkooks like a snaposhot in their best outfits, including sailor suits and knicker suits for the older boys. Both boys wear black long stockings, very commoin at the time, even in the Deep South. Their father probaky took the photograph which is why he is not in the photograpoh.
This is the family of South Carolina Seantor Nathaniel B. Dial (1919-25). The photogtaph was taken in Washington, D.C. (1922). Senator Dial wasv born near Laurens. South Carolina. He attended public schools and them went on to study at Richmond College (Virginia) and Vanderbilt University (Tennessee). After graduarting he studied law at the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the South Carolina Bar (1883). He returned to his home town to begin his pracftice. He was elected mayor of Laurens (1887) for 4 yerar term, and again (1895). The Solid South was imjportabt to any Semicratic presidential candidate. Presiden Goover Cleveland offered him the office of consul in Zurich, Switzerland. Dial who was profitably engaged in banking and in manufacturing enterprises declined the offer. Dial was more interested in becoming a United States senator. He ran in the 1912 Bull Moose election and failed, but suceeded in 1918. And served for 6 years which is when the press photograph of his family was taken in Washington (1922). Dial failed to win remomiantionm (1924). President Coolidge choes him to serve in a commision to inestigate the Muscle Shoals contovery. Ths was a dam on the Tennesse River the Government had begun building along with an industrial village to house the dam and plant workers during World War I. The purpose was to produce nitrates needed for munitions as part of the War effort. The War ended while constructiin of the dam was just beginning. The dam was not finished until 1924 when the munitions plant was no longrr needed. Industrailsts Henry Ford offered to buy the nitrate plant (the nitrates could also be used as fertilizer) and dam at a fraction of the dam's $40 million cost. (This does not include interest costs for a needed bond financing effort.) Ford offered to use it for a massive indudstrial development project in the Tennesee Valley. Progressive Senator George Norris blocked Ford's Muscle Shoals proposal. He believed it was an effort the Federal Government should pursue. Presidents Cooldidge and Hoover blocked that effort, but President Roosevelt backed it and it became an important part of the Tennesse Valley Authority. Norris had no confidence in Dial and the Commission Cooldige appointed to investigate the matter. Dial resumed the practice of law in South Carolina and Washington, D.C. as well as his business interests. He passed away (1940).
Here we see a dockmaster with his wife and three sons. The names are unknown. The oldest boy, standing in the middle, looks as though he were about ten or eleven years old. He wears a white shirt and tie with a stick pin to keep it in place, above-the-knee knickers, long black stockings, and lace-up high shoes. The two younger boys wear long-pants sailor suits with middy blouses and neck scarves. The younger boys have their hair done in bangs.
Here we have a view of Finley J Shepard (1867-1942) strolling down New York City's fashionanable Fifth Avenue with two of his adopted childrenin her best Easter togs. Fifth Ave was famous for the Easter Prade here society strutted to display their fashionble finery. We do not know much about Mr. Shedpard, other than he was an executive at the the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Rather unusually for the time, we know a great deal about his wife Helen Miller Gould (1868-1938), principally because she was the daughter of the notoriuus Jay Gould who finally began investing in railways. Shepard presumably becuse Gould gained contol of several railroads. Helen could not have been more different. She was determibed to create a very differnt for the family. She not not only began gining away her ineritance to charitavler groups, but also adopting New York City orphan waifs. They adopted three children and had one foster child. We are not sure how her husband viewed this, but she gave away much of her inheritance. She was not only a philantropist, but a staunch critic of Soviet Communism, primarily on religious grounds.
On the previous page we see the Fincher family in 1922. We are not sure if they were from Texas or Oklahoma. The father is in shirt sleeves, presumably it was a hot day. It also reflects the greater informality following World War I. The boys are also all in shirt sleeves. Notice that only the older boy wears suspenders like his father. All the boys wear knickers. The older boys wear long stockings while the younger boys are barefoot. The little girl wears a white dress. Notice their home in the background. We are not sure if this is a farm family or if they lived in a small town.
Here we see a gathering of the Rupp family on July 4, 1922, in Pittsburgh. Quite a few children are present, wearing a variety of clothes. Tree of the boys wear long black stockings whereas a younger boy wears knee socks. Notice the boy, center left, wearing a sailor suit with button-on knee pants.The white buttons at his waist are very prominent. His suit has a white dickey and a dark scarf. The boy standing next to him wears a white open-
necked blouse, above-the-knee knickers and long black stockings. A boy at the
extreme right in the second row wears a sweater will a rolled collar, white above-the-knee knickers, and long black stockings. The younger children, both girls and boys, wear knee socks whereas the slightly older children wear long stockings. The girls tend to wear white stockings.
This California family was photographed in 1923. The photograph appears to be the extended family. I'm not surev just who the adults are. There are three children. At first we thought there were three boys, but on closer examination the child on the left looks to be a girl with short hair. She looks to be wearing a blouse and skirt with kneesocks. The boy on the right is wearing knickers with long black stockings. I can't quite make out the shoes that he is wearing. His shirt is a popular style with a open collar cut rather like a middy blouse. There are three children. One wears knickers with long black stockings. Notice how he has his hair combed straight back. The younger boy appears to be wearing a rompers suit.
George Byers, who is a retired professor at Fairmont University in West Virginia, has published a memoir of his mother who grew up in Oblong, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Byers tells of his mother's memory of herself (Peggy) and her brother Tony as children of 10 and 12 years in 1923 when they wore long black stockings which were fastened by garters to a "pantywaist" (the term often used in the 1920s for a child's underwaist). The children hated having to wear long stockings and, unfastening their supporters, would roll the stockings down as soon as they got out of sight of their parents. This memory adds a bit to our knowledge of the "pantywaist" as a garment for boys and girls up to the age of 12 and also to the habit of surreptitiously rolling down long stockings when adults weren't noticing.
Here we see an Indiana family in Veedersburg, Indiana listening to radio just as commercial radio was beginning. Notice the both the speaker and the ear phones. This is a rural family as can be seen by the overalls. I am not sure, however, this is a farm family. Few farms had electricity in the 1920s. Perhaps some of these radio ran on batteries, I am not sure about this. A reader writes that this is an electrical appliance and batteries were not used.
Here we see an unidentified brother and sister in 1924. The children look to be about 8-12 years old. We are not sure where tey lib=ved, perhaps the Mid-West. They seem very close, looking caringly at each other, obviously enjoying having their picture taken. I rather thought of Scout and Jem from To Kill a Mockigbird, but tghey were not that clinging with each other and of course Scout hated dresses. The girl has bobbed hair dine in bangs, a popular hair style for girls at the time. She wears a plain dress with a waistband, knee socks, and "T"-strap shoes. Her big brother wears a flat cap, a Norfolk knickers suit, and dark long stockings. The snapshot was dated 1924.
Here we have a portrait of a Chinese-American merchant family taken in New York City in 1925. We don't know the name of the family, but it is obvious that they are a very prosperous family of
merchants. We know that the family has been converted to Christianity because the photo, taken by the Fisher Studio of New York, derives from an archive of materials having to do with Christian missionary work in New York during the 1920s and 1930s. Christian missionary societies of
the time had a considerable influence upon the assimilation of Chinese imigrants to American culture. Not only were they encouraged to become Christians but also to adopt western styles of dress. This family apparently had eight sons ranging in age from about 23 to about 12 or 13 years.
This is a portrait of a middle-class black family. The family is not identified and the portrait is not dated. We would guess it was taken during the 1920s, probably the mid-20s. The boy is about 12 years old and wears a knicker suit with long black stockings, standard boy's wear at the time. His older sister is elegantly done up in white with a large hair bow and white long stockings. This was also standard for girls at the time, especially when dressing up. We have no information about the family. We think it is clear that they were an urban family, middle-class family. This is suggested both by the way they are dressed as well as the size of the family. At the time there were limited opportunities for blacks, so we might guess father was a preacher or a teacher in a segregated school. There is no suggestion, however, as to where they lived. The 1920s was a time of great transition for black Americans. Before World War I, blacks were largely a rural Southern population. Because of the general poverty of rural blacks, they are under represented in the photograophic record. The Great Migragtion began during the 1910s and the War was a factor. Blacks were streaming north, fleeing the repression, sharecropping, and lack of jobs in the South and seeking jobs in the large industrial cities of the Norrtheast and Midwest. In this case, we suspect that this family was part of the small middle-class in a Southern city.
This may look like a very ordinary farm family out on a Sunday outing probanly a picinic. And it is. But the image in many ways encapaulates why the democracies led by America emerged victorious in the epic confrontation with the great totalitarian powers of the 20th century: Fascist Italy, NAZI Germany, Militarist Japan, and eventually Soviet Russia.
The very ordinary nature of the farm family here is notable. It mean that workingbpeople could own cars. In Euriope working-class oeoplen (farm and industrial could notb own cars. A 1930s image shows a fasgionablevGerman wioman with her sprty convertable. This of coursebmean that that the mjoror verhicle industry in Eurooeamd esoecially in Gerramy was rather small. Notice the fine Ford automobile this American farm family had. No other farmer any where in the world could aford a car like this or no motorize farm operations like the Americans. This is imprtant beacuse it mean that American farmers were the most productive in the world. It gave American the ability to save Europe from famine after World War I and to feed all the countries fighting NAZI Germany in World War II. But it also showed that very orfinary people in America could afford a car. As a result, America which was already the largest industrial power in the world, was propeled into the industrial startisphere after Henry Ford unveiled the Model-T (1907). As a result the United States econmy was twice the size of the NAZI and Soviet economies and farbmore efficent. By the end of the War four times the size of those economies. In an industrial war based on tanks, trucks, artillery, planes, and ships would be vital in winning the War. And eventually four decades later, the Soviet Union would sucumb to the energy of motivated farmerts and workers and the and efficencies of the free market.
Here we see a mother and her two sons, aged 2 and 4 years respectively. The mother is Mrs. Charles Newlin, wife of Charles C. Newlin of the Citizens'Trust Company in Terre Haute, Indiana. The photo was taken by a studio (Martin's Photo Shop of Terre Haute) on November 23, 1926. The two boys wear dress-up clothes for their portrait. The younger boy wears a checked waist with wide collar to which his short trousers are buttoned. The shorts have an ornamental belt, but it is the buttons that hold up the trousers. The older boy wears a light-colored sailor suit with dickey and neck scarf, the short trousers of which button onto the sailor shirtwaist with large black buttons. Both boys wear beige (or light tan) long stockings with supporters.
A brother and sister, Margaret and John William May, photographed in 1927 as a three-year-old and a five-and-a-half-year-old in Smithville, Indiana, a town in southern Indiana near Bloomington. The children's mother, Dorothy Wampler May, is holding Margaret. Grace Wampler, a relative, holds John William. Margaret wears a white dress, white knee socks, and strap shoes. John William wears a white summer suit with button-on shorts, beige long stockings, and brown oxford style shoes. Notice that John William's long stockings (a very light shade of tan) are held up by round garters rather than by the more customary hose supporters. Pediatricians and authorities on child-
rearing discouraged the wearing of round garters around the upper leg because of the constriction of blood vessels. But some mothers preferred them to hose supporters which required the wearing of a garter waist or special underwear (such as underwaists or waist union suits) with the necessary pin tubes or other devices for attaching them. Round garters were simpler for small children to manage.
Here we see the Richard family with their three children taken in early 1927. We are mot sure where they lived, but we would guess they were a middle-class city family. The oldest boy Paul is about 9 years old. His younger siblings are about 7 and 4 respectively. Paul wears a knicker suit with the new patterned knee golf knee socks that were beginning to come into fashion. The knickers don't blouse very much
which makes them almost like above-the-knee knickers in appearance, although we can see the band just below the knee (probably a buckle and strap fastening). The youngest boy wears an Eton short trousers and ankle socks. Notice the white collar, somewhat like an Eton collar. The photo looks very middle class and was probably taken in the family
living room. Daddy seems to be wearing white or very light-colored socks, not very fashionable.
We note a formal studio portrait of the Veldcamp family. The Veldcamps were a family of Dutch origins that lived in Lawrence County,upper New York state--an area close to Canada. We know nothing more about the family. Mrs. Veldcamp is pictured sitting with her two sons and daughter. We know nothing about the family, but they look like a substantial middle-class Dutch family. We do not know the children's first names. The children look to be about 10-16 years of age. Mother and daughter for some reason are wearing their coats. The helmet-like cloche hats of the mother and daughter are a clear indication of the period. Notice Mrs. Veldcamp's fox pelt. The younger boy is weaing a short trousers suit with knee socks and a dark flat cap. His flat cap matches his suit better. The flat cap was the standard boys' cap in America and while worn in Europe, was not nearly as common as in America. The two boys wear suits with collar shirts and ties and flat caps.
Here we have a family of six children, three girls and three boys. Unfortunately we know nothing about the family other than can be deduced from the portrait. The children all look alike so besides the grouping, it is clearly a family grouping. It was a portrait printed as a postcard. It had a Vitava stamp box so we know it was dated some time during 1925-34. The clothing suggess that the late 1920s to us, but it easily could be the early 30s. The rompers and collar buttoning suit the little boys are wearing suggests the 1920s to us. The very plain girls' dresses and hair bows suggest that the 1920s to us. The girls clothes also sem to indicated afamily of rather modest means. Also notice the still rather young oldest boy wearing a long pants suit. This suggests a working class family to us. Most boys his age at the time wore knicker suits.
This family snapshot is undated. A reader estimates it was taken about 1928-30. The boy looks to be about 12 years old. He is wearing a knickers suit with golf socks (knee socks with a bold patern). He writes, "A slight hint that the photo is early is the way in which the knickers are only slightly bloused rather than more fully bloused which was characterisitic of knickers in the later 1930s and 1940s. The bow tie is another clue, I think." We also see boys of this period wearing knickers with long stockings of plain color, often tan, but usually younger boys. HBC when estimating these images generally assigns images with long stockings to the 20s anf knee socks to the 30s. We see younger boys wearing long stockings in the 30s, but except for formal occassions, knee socks were more common. The late 20s were a transitiinal period in which both long stockings and knee socks were worn.
Here we have a photograph of the children of Glenn Jacob Roy Thornton Toothman, Sr. and Elsie Huffman (Rees) Toothman. They are lined up by height. The children are[left-right]: Bettie Jane (Toothman) Halvorsen, Melvin Lee Toothman, Glenn Jacob Roy Thornton Toothman, Jr., Frederick Rees Toothman, James Sterling Toothman. The children look to be about 4-12 years of age. The shnapshot is undated, but looks like the late 1920s. Notice the variation in the boys' clothing, except that they all wear flat caps.
This family portrait shows the Rathchford boys from Duryea, Pennsylvania. Duryea was a town in the athracyte coal area of wesrern Pennsylvania close to Pittsburgh. It is now parrt of the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. We know nothing about the family, but Ratchford would seem to be a family of English origins. There are three boys who look to be about 2-11 yeats old. We do not know their Christian names. They are rather informally dressed. The younger boy wears a button-on suit. The middle boy wears a kind of rugby shirt with the buttons only half way down the font. He has self-belted short pants. Notice how he has buttoned his collar. The older boy with combed-back hair wears a regular shirt with a tie and knickers. All three wear low-cut oxford shoes. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken around 1928-32.
Here we have the Weems boy in easrern Tennesee. Their grandmother is taking care of the boys who seem to have lost their father. We are not sure just what is going on with the Weems and Hardings. The press caption read, "
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