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One type of rainwear was oilskins, although they were not one of the more common styles for children. Oilskins were the first pre-industrial rainwear. An oil skin is an oil embregnated heavy cloth. It was used by sailors and fishermen. And as America from a very early pont in its history had important merchant marine anf fishing industries, we assume that they were widely bused, at leat by adults in northeastern coastal ports. The invention of rubberized rainwear like the mcintosh proved more serviceable for children We do not see a lot of children wearing oilskins even after synthetic fabrics were introduced. While a number of American companies make "oil" impregnated riding dusters, the most popular brands appear to be Australian. We live South of Denver, Colorado (wealthy horse country) and routinely see boys dressed in these dusters riding, or just going to school. Castle Rock, Colorado alone has three stores where boy's oil skin dusters can be purchased (figure 1).
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