Figure 1.--Tis cabinet card portraits shows William and Edna Stapleton, age 5 and 4 yeats old. While the age are indicated on the back. The portrait is undatd. The clothes and mount style, however, suggests the 1890s, probably the early- or mid-90s. William's kilt suit is very plain, but he wears a Fauntleroy blouse to make for alittle fancier look. The jacket and pleated kilt-skirt match, but we are unsure about the color. The studio was Barnum in Morrison, Illinois.

We continue to see American boys wearing kilt suits in the 1890s. This included 5-year olds, at least during the early- and mid-1890s. The portrait of the boys on the previous page was taken about 1890. The kilt suit at the time was still a very popular garment. This is, however, just our preliminay assessment. We see 5-year olds wore kilt suits somewhat less commonly in the late-1890s and especially after the turn-of-the century in the 1900s. This is a time-line trend we are still working on. By the end of the 1890s more boys were being breeched earlier. This meant that more 5-year olds were wearing knee pants. Thus while images of boys wearing drsses in the 1890s, especially aftr mid-decade decline substantilly the kilt suit persisted as an important fashion in the 1890s. There is a very large photographic record to work with, but dting the actual date as to the early and late-1890s is more difficult.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main American kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main kilt page]
[Lace collar] [Floppy bows] [Cut-away jackets] [Kilt suits] [Stiped long stockings] [Shoes]
[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 7:36 PM 5/2/2015
Last updated: 7:36 PM 5/2/2015