Figure 1.--This post card back portrit shows siblings Vaunage and his little sister Nellie. Vaunge is identified as 12 years old. He wears a long slleve shirt, floppy bow, and corduroy knee pants. We are not sure if they were part of a suit. The post card stamp box date the portrait to 1904-18. The knee pants suggest the portrait was taken about 1904-10.

American boys for most of the 19th century wore long pants. Shortened-length pants like knee pants appeared at mid-century, but were worn by younger boys. Only in the later-19th century do we begin to see older boys wearing knee pants. We see a few 12-year olds wearing knee pants in the 1880s, but only in the 1890s do se see large numbers of boys that age wearing them and in some cases only in the later part of the decade. This was paticularly true in rural areas wher older boys were more likely to wear long pants. For a short period even older boys eventually began wearing knee pants. By the end of the decade and in the 1900s, it was fairly standard for most a;; 12-years olds to wear knee pants. Not all American boys wore them, but the great majority did, perhaps somewhat less commonly in rural areas. Therewere sime family diffrences. The prevalence of knee pants changed sharply at the end of the 1900s when boys suddenly changed to knickers. Knickers became the dominant style in the 1910s. Knee pants did not disappear completely, but were largely ecipsed by knickers. Younger boys continued wearing a variety of knee pants outfits, but not this was not common for 12-year olds.

Created: 1:40 AM 10/12/2010
Last updated: 6:29 PM 5/24/2014