Figure 1.--This is a Civil War era CDV portrait was taken about 1865. It shows three unidentified children, surely siblings. The photographer was Scibird & Rex, in Bloomington, Illinois. There is a green 3 cent Federal revenue stamp on the back which helps to date it. The two girls wear vet plain, colored pinafores. It is a little surprising that mother did not remove the pinnies. Given the pinnies and the way the boy is dressed, we would giess that they were a farm family.

Our archive of American children wearing pinafores is limited, thus our assessment concerning social class is only preliminary. We believe that American boys wearing pinafores would primarily be boys from wealthy northeastern families. We think that they were much more widely worn among girls across social class. Modest income families would have been especially interested in ensuring that the children protect their clothing. We say thisprimarily based on the number of girls wearing pinafores to school. around the tuun of the 20th century. Readers may want to look at the HBC individual school sections for the 1890s, the 1900s and the 1910s. These school portraits are some of the best indicators of the popularity of varous garments and fashions. We suspect that the style of the pinafore may at least in part been influenced by scoal class. At least in the 19th century, more affluent children would have been more likely to wear white pinafores.

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Created: 5:33 AM 6/3/2005
Last updated: 10:57 PM 5/9/2008