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Wealthy Americans sent there children to prestigious private schools. Many of the most prestigious ones were heavily influenced by English preparatory and public schools. Many of the most influential American families are descened from English families. Many of those families retained their ties. Even those that did not often looked to England as an arbritor of values and good tastes. English clothes, especially for men and boys were very influential as well as English educational standards and norms. There are several different types of secular private schools. There are both day schools and boarding schools. There are single gender schools, but this is less common today. Most American schools today are coeducational. There are numerous military schools. Many of the schools are founded on the basis of English private schools. An exception here are the military schools. There are very few military schools for children in Britain and none for children from affluent families. Most of the most pretigious American private schools required uniforms, usually similar to British school uniforms. Some schools even followed the British system of boarding education, but boarding was never as accepted by American parents as it was by British parents. American mothers were much more reluctant to send their boys, especially the younger boys, to boarding schools. Even boys at day schools as prestigious private schools were more likely to wear short pants. Some had uniforms blazers or sport jackets worn with ties, short pants, and knee socks. Other schools simply had dress codes requiring more formal clothes. Even boys at these schools might wear short pants. This was in contrast to public schools which did not require uniforms and where boys by the 1940s and especially the 1950s were wearing long pants, even the younger boys.
Wealthy Americans sent there children to prestigious private schools. Many of the most prestigious ones were heavily influenced by English preparatory and public schools. Many of the most influential American families are descened from English families. Many of those families retained their ties. Even those that did not often looked to England as an arbritor of values and good tastes. English clothes, especially for men and boys were very influential as well as English educational standards and norms.
There are several different types of secular private schools. There are both day schools and boarding schools. There are single gender schools, but this is less common today. Most American schools today are coeducational. There are numerous military schools. Many of the schools are founded on the basis of English private schools. An exception here are the military schools. There are very few military schools for children in Britain and none for children from affluent families. There are also schools for primary and secondary children. There are also some schools which offer both primary and secondary programs. The secondary-level schools are known as preparatory schools. This is different than in England where the ekementary-level private schools are known as preparatory schools and the secondaru-level schools are known as public schools. We have some information on individual schools. Some of the prep schools we have acquired information on are: Holderness School, Lawrenceville, Shadyside Academy, and Western Reserve Academy. Some of these different types of schools of course overlap. Most military schools were boarding schools as were many traditional preparatory schools.
Most of the most pretigious American private schools required uniforms, usually similar to British school uniforms. Some schools even followed the British system of boarding education, but boarding was never as accepted by American parents as it was by British parents. American mothers were much more reluctant to send their boys, especially the younger boys, to boarding schools. Even boys at day schools as prestigious private schools were more likely to wear short pants. Some had uniforms blazers or sport jackets worn with ties, short pants, and knee socks. Other schools simply had dress codes requiring more formal clothes. Even boys at these schools might wear short pants. This was in contrast to public schools which did not require uniforms and where boys by the 1940s and especially the 1950s were wearing long pants, even the younger boys. The most popular style of short pants school uniform at the exclusive U.S. private schools was similar to British school uniforms in that boys wore short pants and kneesocks. There were, however, some differences.
First the most commom color for the suits and knee socks was not grey. Rather American boys more commonly wore navy blue or black suits and kneesocks. Second, brightly colored blazers were not commonly worn. Rather American boys more commonly wore suits.
During the colonial era (1609-1776), education varied greatly among the colonies on a regional basis. Education was not a matter mandated by the British Crown as England itself would not found a public school system for another century (1870). And had a strong tradition of private schooling. A few colonies required the education of all from an early point. This tended to be the colonies most fervently Protestant and influenced by the Puritans. Massachusetts was especially important, but this was generally the case throughout New England. Most of the colonies saw education as a matter best left to the discretion of parents. Churches and other community groups often played important roles, but what might be called private schooling predominated. Thus a child's access to education was limited by geography, religion, and family income. Race and gender were also important factors. While public education was limited in the colonies, there was a literacy rate above that of England and much higher than in most of Europe with a few exceptions, especially Protest countries such as the Netherlands. The approach to education changed fundamentally with Revolution. Many of the founding fathers were deeply concerned about education, none more so than Thomas Jefferson. And despite differing views on the role of the new Federal Government, there was a broad national consensus on this, including support from the southern states. As a result, the new nation set out to educate its entire citizenry--a remarkable program at the time. (German states were the only other country to adopt a similar policy promoting public education.) Witin only a few years after the Revolution, two major pieces of legislation set the Unites States on a its radical new educational effort. These were the Land Ordinance (1785) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787), both predating the Federal Constitution (1789). The Northwest Ordinance only involved a few states north of the Ohio River, but served as a template for most states, with the exception of most southern states as it did not cover the 13 original colonies, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. The Federal lands were used to fund the the creation and funding of public (at the time often reffered to as 'common') schools.
In the South, tutors were the most common means of education for the planter class. During the colonial period, it was not uncommon for such upper-crust Southerners to send their children overseas to England and Scotland for their education at a boarding school.
For the most part, where people received formal education, it ended at eighth grade. Secondary education was not commonplace for the majority of Americans until the mid-20th century. According to A Cyclopedia of Education (4 vol. 1911), every state had some kind of publicly funded elementary school education by the year 1870. >
Children of the well-to-do commonly hired tutors. This was especially common in the South among the planter class. And while American launched a system of public education, private schools were also founded. As in Britain, many were founded by clergymen and had religious associations. Often they began with only a handful of students. The first American private school was Collegiate School in Manhattan (1628). Many of the early private schools were in the Northeast where prestigious private schools are still located. This probably reflects the importance given to education by Protestants. Collegiate is the oldest private school in America still extant and operating. And while private education has traditionally been for the better off segment of society, Stephen Girard's estate establishes Girard College in Philadelphia for poor, white, fatherless boys (1848). Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck founded Saint Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire (1856). Dr. Shattuck wanted his sons to go to school locally. His country home in New Hampshire became the first home of what is now Saint Paul's School. It was a boarding school on the British model. Some private schools before the Civil War were military schools which is rather surprising given the fact that America was less militaristic than Europe. After the Civil War, the number of military schools for some reason increased. This was in part due to the phenomenal economic growth of the United States after the Civil War (1861-65). This created great wealth and affluence. And many parents wanted to provide a quality education for the children. Some of the oldest and most prestigious private American schools were founded during this period. any of these schools were influenced by English preparatory and public schools. Private schools were almost all for boys in the 19th century. Girls who could afford it were more likely to go to finish schools. A rare exception was the Annie Wright School in Tacoma, Washington. It opened (1881). The Right Reverend James Paddock founded his school with the financial support of businessman Charles Wright. Note the religious connection, common at many private schools.
Choate School was founded (1896), but George St. John became the legendary headmaster (1909). He was one iof the legendary, long-serving headmasters who shaped the New England prep schools into a national tradition, influenced by muscular Christianity and the idea of duty. They included Endicott Peabody of Groton School, Frank Boyden of Deerfield Academy, Horace Dutton Taft of Taft School, Frederick Sill of Kent School, Samuel Drury of St. Paul's School, Alfred Stearns of Phillips Academy Andover, Lewis Perry of Phillips Exeter Academy, and George Van Santvoord of Hotchkiss School. [McLachlan]
Private schools until after the World War II were primarily for the well-to-do segment of the population. This began to change in the 1970s as liberals began to increasingly began to use public education to spread their ideology, not uncommonly at the cost of academic standards. The result was the rise of home schooling and Christian academies. These academies were like the parochial schools, low cost private schools. This movement has intensified with the advent of more secular new private schools resisting the public schools introducing ahistorical conceos like critical race theory, the 1609 Projrct, Black Lives Matters socialist ideology, white privlidge, and Marxist hate-America ideas. This was done not by rigorous examination, but by cherry picking historical events and usually by comparing America to utopia rather than actual other countries. This was generally done quietly, but in the 2020s educators like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers began to openly object to parents interfering with their indoctrination efforts. These ideas also leeked into private scghools, but here parents are able to pick and choose. And in the 2020s we see the introduction of a range of sexual issues into the public schools. Issues which many see better handled by parents. This and the decline of discipline expectations and academic standards has caused more and more parents to seek alternatives to the public school system.
Many of America's most prestigious private schools were influenced by British education, including the school uniform.
I believe that some schools had peaked caps like British schools-=but HBC has little information at this time. The American caps were mostly dark colors and were not made in bright colors and different patterms like the British caps.
HBC believes that American schools more commonly required suits than balazers. They were mostly single breasted suits. Through the 1950s and even the mid-1960s, dress comtinued to be relatively formal at private schools. Black and dark blue suits were common.
Relatively few American private schools required blazers, but HBC has few details at this time.
Stripped ties were commonly worn by boys at private schools.
Regulations varied from school to school. Boys at American private schools wore both short and long pants. Younger booys wore short pants. Few older boys did.
Boys wearing suits and blazers with short pants commonly wore kneesocks. Some had a striped top. The thin single stripe, often red, was more common in Americam than Brirain.
Armstrong, Christopher F. "On the Making of Good Men: Character-Building in the New England Boarding Schools", in The High-Status Track: Studies of Elite Schools and Stratification>/i> (P.W. Kingston and L.S. Lewis: Albany, N.Y., 1990). pp. 9–10
McLachlan, James. American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study (New York, 1970).
Related Links: Careful this will exit you from the Boys' Historical Clothing web site, but both sites are highly recommended.
Apertures Press New Zealand E-book: New E-book on New Zealand schools available.
Boys' Preparatory Schools: Lovely photographic essay of British preparatory schools during the 1980s containing over 200 color and black and white photographs.
Apertures Press E-books on British prep schools
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
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[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
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[The 2000s]
