Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows four unidentified brothers who look to be about 3-11 years old. Here biology help us establish the age trends. They all wear knickers, black long stockings, and high-top shoes and have identical hair cuts. Thuis and the mount help date the portrait to the 1910s. The younger boys wear blouses with large Peter Pan collars and floppy bows. The older boys wear ties and suit jackets. We do not know if the younger boys also had suit jackets and are just not wearing them. Click on the image for a fuller discussion. .

During the era that knickers were popular (1910s-30s), pre-school boys commonly wore knee pants or short pants. We can see this in the photographic record. Tunic suits were also popular for younger boys during the 1900s and 10s and could be worn instead of propersuits. They comsisted of both knee pants and bloomer knickers. But actual knickers were so prevalent that we see some younger boys wearing them as well. Maila order catalogs offere ueful sizing information. In some cases the younger boys wore knickers with blouses rather than suits. The boys here areca good example (fugure 1). This was probably most common during the summer. But for these younger ages, knickers were not nearly as common as for school age boys. Some parents were beginning to insist on short pants until boys were a certain age before buying knickers. Commedian Wallie Cox remembering his childhood complains about this. This varied from family to family. In many families this was not an issue.

Created: 9:40 PM 9/26/2023
Last updated: 9:40 PM 9/26/2023