Figure 1.--This boy in this CDV was J.E. West in Grafton, New York. American boys generally wore knee pants with long stockings. Note the unusual pattern. The portrait is undated, but looks like the early 1870s.

Boys wore long stockings with first knee pants and then knickers and short trousers for a period of about 100 years—-broadly speaking from about 1860 to 1960. This varied somewhat from country to country. Before and after this period, the fashion was we think almost unknown, although the prevalence of long trousers and the paucity of photographic images makes this difficult to assess. It seems that in central Europe, boys did not wear long stockings and knee pants much before the 1860s and kneepants did not become really prevalent until the 1880s. After this date, trousers became shorter and the wearing of long stockings became very common, in American virtually manditory. The knee pants became very fashionable, commonly chosen by fashoion concious mothers. The long stockings were just as fashionable and even more common than in Europe--except for the northern countries like Scadinavia.

Early 19th Century

I am not sure about the stockings worn in the early 19th Century. When boys were wearing mostly long pants, as was the case in the early 19th century, long stockings were not needed. Affluent boys more commonly wore pantaletes with short socks.

Mid-19th Century

Knee pants appeared in the mid-19th century, although long pants were more common. Kneepants suits began to be worn in the 1850s, but mostly by younger boys from affluent families. Affluent boys still more commonly wore pantaletes with short socks. Kneepants seem to be mostly worn with long stockings. HBC has no information on long stockings, however, during this period. We are not sure how long they were. A problem here is that so many boys wore long trousers. A good example is a 12-year old American boy, Clifton Harrison, in 1866.

Late 19th Century

By the 1870s, as knee pants became increasing popular. American boys almost always wore long stockings with kneepants--except when going barefoot. Other countries had different conventiions. French boys, for example, often wore three-quarter length socks. Long stockings were mostly wool stockings. More expensive stockings might be made of cashmere or even silk. Boys wore the same long stockings as worn by girls and women--only the sizes varied. Most long stockings were black. There were other colors, but black by far were the most common. These long stockings continued to be worn by children, including older boys and girls, throughout the late 19th Century.