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United States boys clothes: suits chrnology 19th century 1850s pevalence
United States Boys' Suits Chronology: The 1850s--Prevalence
Figure 1.--This early tin-type shows a brother and sister about 5-10 years old and is an excellenbt example of period clothing. We see many younger boys wearing tunics or long blouses at mid-century rather than suits. Notice the belt. Tin-types are difficult to date. Cased tin types date to the v1850s or early-60s. (You can see the marks left by the case frame.) The fact that it was a cased tin-type suggests it was taken in the 1850s or very early-60s. Beginning in thw 1860s we begin to see even younger boys wearing suits after breching. It is less valid to use the early photographic record to establish prevalence because it was much more limited than the bmassivebnymber of images appearing with the CDV and cabinet cars in the 1860s. But then again, because of the cost of early photography, the children here are from families of some meanss, meansing that low imcome was probablynot a factor bin their dress.
Many boys did not wear suits in the 1850s, even when dressing up. This is the last decade of the century in wjich we do not see many boys wearing suits. We suspect that they did not own suits. If a boy did not wear a suit jacket for a photographic portrait, we believe he probably did not have one. Mothers normally dressed children up in their best oitfits for a portrait. Age was a factor. It is mostly younger boys that we see wearing blouses and tunic-like shirts. Older boys and teens were more likely to have suits. In fact. more younger boys seem to wear blouses and tunic-like tops rather than suit jackets. Economics was probably a factor. Suits were an expensive item. The industrial revolution was beginning to take hold in the northern sttes, especilly the northeast. The wealth that would come with industrilization had not yet transformed America, but changes were beginning. Thus many American families did not yet buy suits for their younger boys. We do, however, see more jackets than in the 1840s--we believe primarily becuse of the increasing properity resulting from the the early stages of America's economic development. Large numbers of people owned their farms and industrialization was beginning.
