Figure 1.--All of a sudden begining about 1908 we ee a lot of farm boys wearing overalls to school. This school portarit taken in the 1910s show quite a few boys wearing overalls.

Overalls also called dungarees are primarily an American garment. The appeared in the mid-19th century, at first a hardwearing garment for miners. They were gradually adopted by factory workers as American industrailized and eventually by farmers as well. We are not sure just when they began to be adopted by farmers. It appears for some reason to be later than factory workers. They were not adopted to any extent by rural school children until the early-20th century. We are not sure why all of a sudden we begin to see farm children weaing overalls to school. Perhaps it was when farmers bedgan wedaring overalls. The best indicator as overalls as school wear is school portraits. And this allows us to precisely date when overalls began to appear in American schools--about 1908. Amrican children did not wear uniforms. Thus the clothing they are wearing in the school portraits are a good indicator of popular styles. We do not begin to notice them at schools until after the turn of the 20th century. We note a boy at at a rural Tennessee school in 1902 wearing what look like home-made overalls. This is the eatrliest indicator we have of school usage. Our assessment of school portraits suggest that overallswere not all that common at rural until about 1908. And that they were not worn at all at urban schools. It was not until the end of the decade, however, that we note them beng commonly worn to school and only at rural schools. We seem them being worn very commonly at rural schools through the 1930s and into the earl-40s. A good example is the Bellevue School in Illinois. We do not know why they suddenly became so common. Boys in rural America commonly went to school in overalls through the 1930s and into the early 40s. And they almost always wore long pants overalls.

American Garment

Overalls also called dungarees are primarily an American garment. The appeared in the California gold fields during the mid-19th century, at first a hard wearing garment for miners. They were gradually adopted by factory workers as American industrailized and eventually by farmers as well. Although today for some reason they are most assiociated with farmers. We are not sure just when they began to be adopted by farmers. It appears for some reason to be later than factory workers. We are not sure about Canada. Our Canadian achieve is rekstively small. So we are unsure to what extent ioveralls were worn in Canada or for that mater Mexico. We re niot syre abiut Casnada, but as far as we can tell, overals were not worn by Mexicn children. .

Rural Children

They were not adopted to any extent by rural school children until the early-20th century. We are not sure why all of a sudden we begin to see farm children weaing overalls to school. Perhaps it was when farmers bedgan wearing overalls. The best indicator as overalls as school wear is school portraits. And this allows us to precisely date when overalls began to appear in American schools--about 1908. Amrican children did not wear uniforms. Thus the clothing they are wearing in the school portraits are a good indicator of popular styles. We do not begin to notice them at schools until after the turn of the 20th century. We note a boy at at a rural Tennessee school in 1902 wearing what look like home-made overalls. Note that he is the only boy wearing overlls ast the time. This is the eatrliest indicator we have of school usage. It was not until the end of the 1900s, however, that we note them being commonly worn to school and only at rural schools. Our assessment of school portraits suggest that overalls were not all that common at rural until about 1908. We do not know why they suddenly became so common.

School Garment

Overalls suddenly appeared in American scgools in large numbers about 1908. We have no idea why, but bekieve this was when they began to be worn by rural children, not when rural chikldren suddenly began wearing oberakls they were aklready wearing them to school. And as far as we know, the United states is the only ciojuntfy wg=hen boys wore overalls to school. Canadian boys may have wirn overalls to scgool, but our Canadian archive is very small. For some reason we hace almost no Canadian school portraits, so we cannot yet confirm this. They were very common in rural American schools throughout the 1910s-30s, virging on universal except fot the older boys. . We see that in 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s school portarits. A good example is the Washington School in Oklahoma (1934-35). Abother good example is the Bellevue School in Illinois. And that they were not worn at all at urban schools. We seem them being worn very commonly at rural schools into the early-1940s, but not commonly after World War II (1941-45).

Length

Overalls were almost always done as a long pants garment. We have archived large numbers of rural school portraits with boys wearing overals. Almost always they were long pants overalls. And the time that overalls were common was a time when many boys wore short pants or knickers to school. Knickers were virtually universal in urban schools during in the 1910s and 20s. Younger boys might wear shorts, especially in the South. And note that the population before air conditioning and the 1950s, in the southern states includung the southwest was much smaller than it is now. And jeans were not yet popular scoolwear, this also began in the 1950s. We have only found one boy so far wearing short panrs overalls, 2nd grader at the Washinton School in Oklahoma.

Created: 10:58 AM 6/24/2019
Last updated: 10:58 AM 6/24/2019