Figure 1.--American boys in the mid-19th century commonly wore both dresses and knee pants with long white stockings. This unidentified New York boy had his portrait taken durung the Civil War era. A reventue stamp dates it to 1864-66. He looks to be about 7-years old and wears a cut away jacket suit with nutton-on knickers. Note the extensive emroidery. The outfit is completed with a large peaked cap, white long stockings, and high-top shoes.

Only in the 1850s did long white stockings come into style for small children. Or I should say can we begin to tell. This is because shorter-length pants began to becoe more common so we can see what type of hosiery children are wearing. A good example of a boy wearing white stokings is a German boy about 1862. Another good example is two unidentified brothers in 1864. Dress styles by the 1850s were much shorter than earlier in the decade. Pantalettes had also been shortened and now were worn well above the shin to knee level. As it was not considered proper for even young children to appear in bare legs, they were now outfitted in long white stockings. As best we can tell long stockings were not very long, probably coming to just above the knee. We note many American boys wearing long white stockings at mid-century. We are not sure just how long they were, however, because knee pants and bloomer knickers were normally cut quite long. A good example is two New York City children, probably in the 1840s. Another example is a New York boy about 1850. We notice Philadelphia brothers in 1862 wearing white dresses with white stockings. Another example is twoDetroit brothers, probably in the late-1860s. John Schwensusen is another good example. We also note the Caplain brothers in France during the 1860s. We note an English boy, Cyril Bickersteth, in 1865. We also notice an unidentified Canadian boy wearing a velvet suit with white long stockings. We see American boy, Augustus Davies, wearing white long stockings with a kilt suit in the late-1860s. This was a rare combination because just as white long stockings were going out of fashion, kilt suits were becoming popular.

Created: 4:28 AM 1/29/2015
Last updated: 4:28 AM 1/29/2015