Figure 1.-- Here we see three of the important suit styles worn in the 1860s. We see a button-on jacketless suit, a collasr-buttoning suit, and a cit-away jackey suit. These were the three major suit styles at the time. The CDV was probablky taken just after the Civil War, probably about 1867 or 68. The boys look to be abot 5-12 years old. The studio was S.B. Smith, Honeoye, New York.

We see several different styles of suits in the 1860s. The most common suit was the military-styled collar buttoning jacket with numerous buttons. This style seems to have fitst appared in the 1850s. The military styles, despite the outbreak of the Civil War, seem to becoming less popular. These collar buttoning jackets were a style for younger boys.They were often worn with white shirt collars. More of the jackets gad smnall collars. Here we see a good example (figure 1). The Lincoln boys wore these suits. We think they were generally navy blue. There were various styles, including Norfolk suits. This of course was during the Civil War (1861-65). We are not sure about boys in the souhthern states. They were lmost always worn with long pants. Older boys by the late-60s began wearing more modern looking sack suits began to be worn in the late-1860s. Often they do not seem to fit real well. The other major style was the cut-away jacket. Most of these jackets dud not have collars. And most younger boys commonly wore suits with cut-away jackers. These cut-away jackets were very popular during the 60s. Younger boys often wore them with long-cut knee pants but we also see long pants. We see somewhat older boys wearing them with mostly long pants. These cut-ways jackets were worn with both long pants and shortened-length pants. There were fancy desisgns like Zouave uniform suits. The Zouave suits were usually worn with cut-away jackrts. There were also button-on outfits. Suits generally are associated with jackets. Actually suits are marchung tops nd bottoms. And a popular style was styles in the 1860s was a button on suit with a matching top and bottom. These were two-pices suits with shirt-like tops that buttoned onto the pants. The top was not done done in shirting material, but in the heavier same material as the pants. A waist band usually hid the buttons connecting the top and bottom. A waistline device often hid the buttons. Here a good example is C. Stewart in 1865. Younger boys in fashionable families might wear knee pants suits, especially in cities. Less affluent boys and boys in rural areas wore long trousers more commonly, especially older boys until the 1890s. A good example is Stephen Uchlein about 1869.

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Created: 3:57 PM 8/5/2021
Last updated: 10:16 PM 8/25/2022