|
The appearance of CDVs and cabinent cards provides us a wealth of photographic evidence for the 1860s. Thanks to the CDV we sudennly have millions of images to illustrate period dress. The CDV rapidly replaces Daguerrotypes and Ambrotypes. Not only are there many more photographs, but the quality of the images gives us much more detailed information. 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.
The two basic elements of a suit are the jacket/suit and pants/trousers were a optional element. The jacket is the most important element of a suit. It generally gives the name to the suit type. There were several different jacket types. Pants commonly called trousers in Britain are the second principal element of the suit. We see more diverse pants types in the 1860s which were primarily age based.
We note a range of garments being worn with suits during the 1860s. This was affected by the type of suit wjich in part was a function of age. We notice a variety of headweae. The most common type of weadwear was the rounded crown hat. We are not sure how common these hats were, but we see them throughout the late-19th century. We note both plain shierts and shirts with patterns. They were all long sleeves. Most seem to have small vollars or no collars at all. Our information om shirts is limited because so many were covered by suit jackets.
The appearance of CDVs and cabinent cards provides us a wealth of photographic evidence for the 1860s. Thanks to the CDV we sudennly have millions of images to illustrate period dress. The CDV rapidly replaces Daguerrotypes and Ambrotypes. Not only are there many more photographs, but the quality of the images gives us much more detailed information. The caninet card appeared at mid-decade, but the CDV dominanted American photography during the 1860s. We see some cabinet cards in the late-60s, but the cabinent card did not become the principal format until the 1870s. CDVs did not disappear. We still see some in the 1880s, but the number is very small compared to cabinet cards.
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.
The two basic elements of a suit are the jacket/suit and pants/trousers were a optional element. The jacket is the most important element of a suit. It generally gives the name to the suit type. There were several different jacket types. Pants commonly called trousers in Britain are the second principal element of the suit. We see more diverse pants types in the 1860s which were primarily age based. Some younger boys wore suits with long-cut knee pants but we also see long pants. Almost all older boys wore suits with long pants. There were also button-on outfits. Many boys wore suits without vests in the 1860s, but we see quite a few vests as well.
We note a range of garments being worn with suits during the 1860s. This was affected by the type of suit which in part was a function of age. We notice a variety of headweae. The most common type of weadwear was the rounded crown hat. We are not sure how common these hats were, but we see them throughout the late-19th century. We note both plain shirts and shirts with patterns. They were all long sleeves. Most seem to have small vollars or no collars at all. Our information om shirts is limited because so many were covered by suit jackets. We know the most about the shirts worn with cut-away jackets because some were worn without vests and we can see many of vthe shirts. Many of these shirts were button-on shirts which held up the trousers. This was common with cut-away jackets. We are less sure about trouser suspension with other types of suits. We notice boys mostly wearing long stockings with knee pants and other shortened-length pants. The knee pants tended to be calf length so the long stockings did not have to be very long. Many of the shoes were loe-cut shoes.
We see both button-on one-piece suits and jacket suits in the 1860s. Youngerboys might wear the one-piece suits. We do noy yet have a good fix on the age conventins. We believe that tghey were worn by pre-school boys and boys in the early-primary years, boys usually up to about 8 years of age, but perhaps as old as 10 years. This is just our preliminary assessment. We see various jacket suits as well. There were two common styles. one was the the short, collar buttoning jacket like the boy here is wearing (figure 1). The other was the cut-away jacket suit. These jacket suits were worn by older boys. Ewe see boys of aboyt 5-12 years of age wearing them. We need to archive more images before definatively establishing the age ranges. We think that the age range for the collar buttoning suits was a little highee than the cut-away jacket suits. The Lincoln boys in the White House wore the collar buttoning suits. Mrs. Linclon who was obsessed with with fashion, but did not give all that much attention to the boys' outfits. A factor here was that the Lincolns came from a rather small Western town (despite being the state capital) and not a fashionable northeastern city. We also see sack suit jackets for older boys.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main U.S. 19th century cronology page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossary]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
