Figure 1.-- This unidentified New Jersey boy looks to ve about 6 years old. He wears a cut away jacket knee pants suit. Nitice the dark libg stockings. These had a oartial mpattern which was not very common. The portait is undated, but looks like the 1870s. The studio was W.A. Apcar in Somerville, Mew Jersey.

Hosiery also varied although here our information is limited to that worn with shortrened-length pants. And this varied over time. Of course only with such pants was the hosiery vissible and thus an important part of the outfit. Here mothers varied, some hosiery was chosen with the suit in mind and in other cases the boy just wore what was handy. Boys in the 18th century wore scaled down versions of their father's clothing. This would mean knee breeches and stockings. Boys unless from an affluent family probably went barefoot through much of the summer. When dressing up in a suit, if they had a suit, they probanly wore shoes and stockings. This changed in the early-19th century as boys began wearing long panys, including skeleton suits. This we are not entirely sure anout hosiery. It was probably simlar to the 18th century, although the stockings did not have to be so long. Imnges are kimited until after the appearance of photography (1840s). Most of the early photographs show boys wearing mostly long pants so we have little idea about hosiery. With the trendous ecomomic growth and rising prosperity of the United States, more boys began wearing suits in the second half of the century, especially by the 1860s. At mid-century we begin to see younger boys wearing shortened-length pants with or withiut suits. Gradually knee opants became more common and older boys began wearing knee poants so we have a good idea about hosiery. And alomost all American boys wore long stockings. Whire stickings were common in the 1850s and 60s. EWe see stried stoclings in the 70s. Blacl long stovkings became standad in the 80s and this continued into the early-20th century. Biys mostly wore knee pants and black long stockings were by far the most common, although there were other colors. Many boys went barefoot, but when wearing shoes most commonly wore black long stockings. Boys generally switched to knickers (1910s). There were also three-quarter socks but they were not generally worn with suuts. At first they wore blacl long stockings with knickers, but we see patterned knee socks (1920s). They were also worn with short pants suits. We see a mix of hosiery (1930s). Long stockings becane much less ciommion and anklele siocks by the end of the decade behgan to reolace knee socks. This trend continued, but long pants were becomingh invreasingly common (1940s). And this general pattern comtinyed (1950s). We notice the Stewart boys weating ankle socks with short pants Eton suits (1951). .

Created: 2:21 AM 3/15/2014
Last updated: 2:21 AM 3/15/2014