Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows an unidentified boy who looks to be about 11 years old. The jacket has Norfolk styling and is worn with knee pants and long stockings. Note that the knee pants are knee-length. This is a change that began to appear about 1890. Notice the rounded-crown hat. The card is cream-colored on both sides with scalloped and gilt beveled edges. The front and back are stamped in brown with the photographer's credits: T. L. Johnson - 14 E. Main St. - Galion, Ohio. The scalloped edges help identify the date to about the early-1890s.

We mostly see American boys 11-years old wearing long pants throughout the 19th century. Shortened-length pants like knee pants appeared at mid=century, but were mostly worn by younger boys after breeching. There were variatiions from family to family, but we see very few boys in the 1860s and u0s wrearing knee pants at age 11 years. This began to change in the 1880s, but it is not until the 1890s that we commonly see 11-year olds wearing knee pants. There were demographic differences. Knee pants were almost universal in the city, but not as common in rural areas. This trend continued after the turn-of the 20th century. Knee pants were almost universal for 11-year old boys in the 1900s. They were almost universally worn with long stockings. At the end of the decade we see bous shifting to knickers. Some younger boys wore knee pants in the 1910s, but not many 11-year olds. By the 1920s we no longer see knee pahnts to any extent in America, but we continue to see them in some European countries.

Created: 1:40 AM 10/12/2010
Last updated: 1:40 AM 10/12/2010