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We do not yet have sufficent information and images to prepare a chronology on English pinafores. Photograph is our primary source. Our English archive is much smaller than our American archive, especialy for the 19th century. They seem to have been a very common garment in the 19th century. Both boys and girls wore them, althouh they were much more common for girls. Only younger boys wore them. We believe that they were widely worn in the early-19th century, but we do not yet have any suppotng information as photography was not yet invented. We note pinafores in the photographic record, but do not yet have images for the mid-19th century. Photography wa much more limited in England than in America at mid-century. We do have images showing pinafores in the late-19th century. We believe that pinafores were much more common than suggested by the photographic record. The pinafore was a utilitarian, protective garment. And thus not usually worn for studio portaits because beause people tnded to dress up. We do have a few examples. The drugery of laundry was one reason pinafores as well as the cost of clothes were such a popular and widely worn garment. We are not entirely sure about the age conventions, but hve begun todevelop some baic information. They were very common for younger children, but not very common for boys after they began school. Breeching was a factor even before beginning school. Once noys were breeched, they were less likely to wear pinafores.
We only begin to see large numbers of English pgotographic portrait in the 1860s. Dags, Ambros, and some CDVs were taken in the 1850s, but not in large numbers. The numbers of images were only a fraction of those taken in America. The popularity of the CDV mean that for the first time we have large numbers of portraits in the 1860s. And we see children wearing pinafores in these early portraits. We do not see very many, primarily because mothers wanted the children dressed up in their best clothes for the portraits. Thus the pevalence in the photographic record is not a good indicator of actual prevalence. We think pinafores were virtually universal for girls. For boys it was mostly pre-school ages, although we have no confirmtion of this. The small number of images we have found so far do not iedntify the children. And the younger children are often difficult to identify. We have only noted white pinafores, but our sample is so small that wear mot sure just how common this was.
We see many English children wearing pinafores throughout the 1the 19th century, includung the 1880s. We have more images from the sevcond half of the century because photograophy eas more prevalnt. This English cabinet card shows two unidentified chilren and a lady (figure 1). We are not sure if the lady is a young mother or a nanny. The children look to be about 2-4 years of ages. Both wear colored dresses with puff sleevesand white pinafores. The younger child hss a wide waist sash. The portrait is undated, but we think looks like the 1880s. Notice the boy's short puffed sleeve. We have found another family portrait with ther younger brother standing ion achairt wearing a pinafore ovbr his colored dress. The cabinet card porttiat is also undated, but the mount looks like the 1880s. As the older boy is wearing a Fauntleroy ruffled collar, it would be the latter half of thre 1880s. These images are difficilt to destingish from the 1890s, epecially because we are more familar with American portraits, but the mont we belive was most lklkely to be the 1880s.
We continue to see English chldren wearing pinafores in the 1890s, both at home and at school. We note many examples in the photographic record. The pinafore were primarily, but not exclusively worn by girls. Many girls of all ages wore them to school over dresses. They were as iconic for girls as the school cap was for boys. This was not a school requirement, but a widely accepted convention of the time. We notice many different styles. White continued to be the dominant color. The cost of clothing and the labor intensive nature of laundry all were factirs in the pinafore continuing to be so commonly worn. Youger boys might wear them at home, but we only see nursery school/kindrgarten boys wering them to school. We have found quite a number of examples in the photographic record.
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