Figure 1.--American boys since shortened-lenth pants, mostly knee pants, first appeared in the mid-19th century had been wearing long stockings. And girls wearing dresses also wore them. This changed framtically in the 1920s. Long stockings wre still commonly worn after Wotld War I in the early-1920s. But as you can see here, we think about about 1928, while the boys are still wearing knickers, most of them are wearing knee socks. The girls still seem to be wearing long stockings, but this is more difficult to determine because they are not in the front row. Notice how so many of the girls have the same bobbed hair cut. The children look like 5 gradees, meaning about 10 years old. Put your cursor on the kimage to see the rest of the class.

We do not have not hard evidence about how popular long stockings were. Here there may be differences among the children and the maothers. Fathers may not have been greatly involved. We do have considerable photographic evidence as to how widely they were worn. This is, however, not the same as popularity. Another interesgting tool in assessing popularity is period advertising. Manufacturers of stocking supporters bgan to take on issues beyond strength and durability. They adress comfort and restrictiness and the idea that long stockings and stocking supportetr were more for girls. They railed against the idea of panty waists. This suggests to us that boys were beginning to complain to mothers. And the advertisers were trying their best to convince mothers that their products were comfortable, not-restricrive, and not girlish. As late as the early-20th century. long stockings were still the accepted style. Boys had worn them for decades. The rapidity with which they were replaced by knee socks during the 1920s suggest to us that they were not very popular with boys. Short pants became popular with younger boys after World War I in the 1920s. We suspect that little boys who began wearing short pants with socks during the summer in the 1920s, were not to happy about swithching to long-stockings when they began wearing knickers and started school. Some may not have seen the point if it. Modsty with was a factor in the 19th century was no longr a concern in the 20th century, especially after World War I. And after all many boys went barefoot and did not wear any hoiery during the summer in both the 19th and early-20th century. And by the 1920s knee socks were available and more boys were wearing long pants. Long pants in particular were becomong increasingly popular by the late-1930s. Few boys wearing long pants wore long stocvkings. But other factors may have been involved. Boys in particular don't like complicatiins with clothing. And putting on sticking supporters and fastening long stockings were a serious vomplication. Surely most boys would have found that the hose supporters that you had to wear with them very restrictive and uncomfortable. HBC believes that long stockings may have been more popular with mothers than their sons, or even daughters. During the inter-war period, boys stockings worn by fewer and fewer boys, especially by the late-30s. But for those mothers that chose them for their sons, and there were many, stockings as an option were certainly an acceptable norm in boys attire.