Figure 1.-- Here we see the graduting 8th graders in 1930. The boys all wear white knickers which would have been purchased specially for the graduation. Note the brigthly patterened kneesocks.t colored suits with patterened kneesocks. One boy wears light-colored long stockings and another boy wears ankle socks. A reader writes, "Interesting on the socks in this picture. I'm not sure about the ankle socks. I think these are knee socks with a pattern that makes them look a bit like ankle socks--and the lighting here is a bit deceptive too." The girls wear white dresses, I believe with white long stockings.

We do not know if this was when the school was actually founded. This archives provides some insights on dress and uniform policies at one specific parochial school. The images do not necesarily provide details on how the children normally dressed at school, but the formal portraits are still useful. We are not sure about the dress code, but there does not seem to have been a unform until the 1960s. The boys appear to have worn short pants or knickers until the mid-1930s when long pants became more common. Graduation ouffits also varried over time. Graduation outfits were not what the children normally wore to school, but the children seem to have graduation portraits taken in their uniforms during the 1960s. This suggests uniforms were adopted in the 1960s, but it could have been earlier. The school website has an archive of First Communion and graduation portraits dating back to 1926.

Garments

We see the children at the School of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen wear a wide variety of outfits. Unfortunately most of the information comes from special events such as First Communion and graduation, so we are not sure how the children dressed for day to day school. We see the younger boys in the 1920s wearing short pants and kneepants including sailor suit outfits. They wore short pants suits for First Communion, at first dark Eton suits and then white suits. Older boys wore knicker suits for graduation in the 1920s, but changed to long pants suits in the 1930s. We suspect some of the boys got tgheir fiorst long pants suits for their graduation. Gradually suits became less common and the school adopted a uniform, we believe in the 1960s. A reader notes the saddle shoes that many boys wore. He writes, "Boys in the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s wore saddle shoes as parft of their First Communion outfits ( blucher and bal styles). I don't think I have ever seen a class of boys where they all wore saddle shoes. One usually associates these shoes with Catholic school girls uniforms, not boys. I wonder if the boys wore these shoes as part of their regular classroom uniforms, or whether they were just worn for the Communion pictures. I was in Baltimore in the late 40s and know they were very popular there at the time. noted that there were pictures of older boys wearing saddle shoes in the graduation pictures (no bluchers). So I guess the smaller boys had no problem wearing them as well if the older boys were wearing them."

Chronology

School photographs over time provide a great deal of interesting information about the clothes the children wore, although these were mostly outfits for special occassions. We have little informatioin about everyday schoolwear.

The 1920s

We do not know if this was when the school was actually founded. The first images we have are from the 1920s. The boys appear to have worn short pants or knickers. There was no uniform. We note the younger boys wearing various outfits with short pants and kneesocks in 1926. This appears to be what the children wore to school. Older boys in the 8th grade wore knicker suits. We believe these suits were boughtvspecial for graduation and not how they normally dressed ar school. All the boys have knicker suits. Some show all the boys wearing dark suits. Other photographs show the boys wearing different colored shirts. The suits are all knicker suits. We suspect that the school probably recommended this. Apparently the school did not provide guidance on hosiery. Some boys wore conservative dark long stockings. Quite a few boys wore sporty kneesocks in bold patterns. The girls wear white dresses and long stockings.

The 1930s

Graduation ouffits varried over time. We see the boys wearing white suit jackets with white knickers in 1930. The suit jackets may have been from suits the boys already had. The white knickers would have been purchased specially for the graduation. Apparently the schoo initially insisted that the boys wear white knickers and not white long pants. Apparently the school allowed boys to wear long white pants for their graduation. Boys in that year wear both knickers and long pants. After that year all the boys wear white long pants for graduation. Most of the boys in tghe 1930s wear boldly patterened knee socks, but a few boys wear long stockings and ankle socks. Also notice the sporty two-tone shoes. The girls wear white dresses, I believe with white long stockings. Graduation outfits were not what the children normally wore to school. Unfortunately we do not know whatthese boys or the younger boys at school normally wore to school.

The 1940s

The boys in the early 1940s were still wearing dark jackets with long white pants for their graduation. Several of the boys wore saddle shoes. The girls wore white dresses with natty hats. We note that the boys by 1946 were wearing suits again, both dark and light-colored suits. The girls wore white dressed with smaller hats.

The 1950s

We still do not know what the boys wore to school during a normal day. We note the boys still wearing suits with saddle shoes for their graduation in the early 1950s. The girls wear white dresses. The school changed to white suits for the boys in the late 1950s, but with dark shoes. The girls wear white dresses.

The 1960s

We are not sure about the dress code, but there does not seem to have been a unform until the 1960s. The children had their graduation portaits taken in academic gowns in the early. 1960s. We believe that for normal schoolwear that uniforms were introduced in the 1960s, but we are not sure precisely when. It could have been in the 1950s.

The 1970s

The children seem to have graduation portraits taken in their uniforms during the 1960s. This suggests.uniforms were adopted in the 1960s, but it could have been earlier. The boys seem to have worn white shirts, ties, and slacks. For graduation they added sports jackets, but some of the gtaduation portraits are without the sports jackets. These portraits are especially useful because they show what the children normally wore to school.

Navigate the Relate Boys Historical Clothing Style Pages
[First Communion] [Confirmation] [Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Kneepants] [Knickers] [Kneesocks] [Long stockings] [Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers] [Button-on clothing] [Blazer] [School sandals] [Saddle shoes] [Bangs]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Return to the Main School of the Cathedral of Mary our Queen page]
[Main National School Uniform Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Poland] [Singapore] [Scotland]
[Singapore]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Girls]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Satellite sites] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 2:53 PM 7/23/2005
Last updated: 7:07 PM 8/2/2005