Figure 1.--This Amrotype shows American brothers wearing identical jackets and rather loud checked pants, probably in the miod- to late-1850s.

Most American boys continued wearing long pants in the 1850s. And the growing photograph record provides a definitive view of the fashion trends. And there ws no longr just Dags. Tin-types and Ambrotypes appeared. This makes it a little easier to date the images specifically to the 1850s. The 1850s tin-types were usually cased. And Ambrotypes were most taken in the second half of the decade. We see a few in the 1860s, but obky ghe very early-60s. Younger boys from fashionable city families apparently began wearing bloomer knickers with fancy suits at mid-century, but the growing photographic record suggests this was not very common. We find few such images. Long pants after breeching were the dominant fashion, no longer universal, but very close to it. The photographic record is a good example of how common long pants still were in the 1850s. And given the cost of Daguerreotypes and even Ambrotypes, long pants were probably even more common with the general public than indicated by the photographic record. Slow speeds meant that subjects usually were phothraphed seated. And poses usually focused on the torso. It is often difficult to make out the pants a boy was wearing or much in the way of detail. A good example is an unidentified boy, we think in the late-1850s. He is wearing button-on pants. But many 1850s portraits just shiowed the torso or the top part of the pants. Fortunately the photographic record is so large hat we have a very good idea of the pabnts.trousers boys were wearing and they were very nearly all long pants. We note boys wearing both solid/flat colored psnts, but patterns were also very common. Loud checks were considered very stylish.

Created: 9:19 AM 9/4/2011
Last updated: 9:19 AM 9/4/2011