Figure 1.--Here we have a fairly standard sized school class. There is no information associated with the class portrait, but we think it was taken in the 1940s, probably the late-40s. It looks like a Spring photo as the teacher has her coat on and many of the children are wearing sweaters. A reader thinks it may be a Autumn photograph. "My guess would have been September (start of the school year) as the temperature in September can be cool but not cold. And that would make sense for a class photo." The boys are wearing both short and long pants, but no knickers, helping to date the photograph. We would guess it was a 3rd grade classs, meaning 8-year olds.

Short pants were also worn by younger boys. This varied regionally and chronolgically. Shorts were most commonm in the South. S hort pants were the natural evolutionn from knee pants which were very common in the late-19th and early-20th century. We commonly see short pants after World War I (1920s). At the time, boys wore shorts or knickers all year round as part of age conventions. Shorts were mostly worn by younger boys. Older boys more commonly wore knickers to school. We see youngr teens wearing knee pants and knickrs to high school, but never short pants. There were regional, seasonal, and social class differences. Knickers declined in popularity (1930s). Somee boys wore short pants instread, but mosd tended to wear long pants, especially to school. Here there were regional, seasonal, and social class differences. Most of the boys wearing shorts to school were the younger boys. By 5th-6th grade (10-12 years old), most boys were wearing long pants to school. Short pants were increasingly bcoming casul summer wear rather than styles younger boys wore (1960s). We only see long pants in high school (late-1930sd). Many high school had more more formal dress codes. This continued until the late-20th century when school dress becme increaing casual sand we begin go see more boys wearing shorts.

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Created: 3:40 AM 2/7/2022
Last updated: 3:41 AM 2/7/2022