Figure 1.-- This rounded-corner CDV portrait shows an unidentified boy who looks to be about 5 years old. He is wearing a three-piece knee pants suit with a vest. He has a cut-away jacjetdonw with lapels. He has a white shier which you can see at the collar and waistline. Unusually there is no neckwear. Notice the multi-color striped long stockings and laceup high top shoes. Photographer information on the backstamp shows the studio was J.B. Alexanderin Pittsburg, Pa. (Pennsylvania). The portrait is undated, but looks like the early-1870s to us.

We note large numbers of boys and girls wearing striped stockings during the 1870s. It was a not a new style or a style that ended with the 70s. We see striped stockings in the 1860s and 80s as well. But it is in the 70s that we see a huge number od children wearing striped stockingsin the photographic record. It is akottle difficult to estimre, but we believe that more than half of the stockings we see in the studio portaiture of the day were striped stockings. We do not know if this also reflected what the the children wore hn not dressed up for a portrait. Thisis difficult to assess because there was not yet any amateur snapshots toshow how children dressed outside the studio. One of our best source of popular trends is school portraits, but the school portrait tradition was not yet well established in the 1870s and many school-age boys were still wearing long pants, making it difficult to assess hosiery. We have archieved a huge number of studio portraits showing boys wearin striped stockings. A good example is an unidentified Salem boy, we believe in the 1870s. We note Newton Field Waters wearing dark striped stockings with asailor suit in 1873. He was photographed in a fashionableBroadway studio in New York, suggesting his outfit was the height of fashion. An American boy, 3-year old Andrew Richardson, wears boldly striped long stockings in 1875. Now boys not only wore them with knee pants and to a lesser extent bloomer knickers, but also with the popular kilt suits. Highland kilts were not worn to any extent, but kilt suits were very popular for younger boys.

Created: 3:05 PM 7/23/2015
Last updated: 3:05 PM 7/23/2015