Figure 1.-- This American boy was from Canajoharie, New York. He wears one of many styles of suit jackes that buttoned at the collar. The CDV portrait is undated, but was taken in the 1870s. He looks to be wearing bloomer knickers.

Describing mid-19th century suit styles is somewhat difficult as the styles were quite varied and there are often no easily assigned stylist names for the styles. We are not sure precisely what these jackets were called by contemprary authors. In addition, ready made clothing had not yet developed leading to substantial variation. There seem to have been three basic styles: the button-up jacket, the cut-away jacket, and the sack suit jacket with lapels. Many boy, however, did not wear suits until the 1860s. We see many photographs with boys wearing shirts and blouses or to a lesser extent tunics.

Button-up Jacket

Some suit jackets were made to be buttoned at the collar. There were thus no lapels. Some of these jackets hung down over the waistline. Others were shirt like jackets tht buttoned to the pants. The New York boy here wears an example of the jackets with button-on pants. They seem similar to the yunics boys wore at the time. They were worn with shirts. The collar might be vissilble, but was normally quite small. The shirt collars tended to be quite small in the 1860s, sometimes not vissible at all. They complletely covered the shirt. The jacket might have quite modern pocket arrangements. I am not sure when this style first appeared, but was being worn by the 1850s. This was a very plain style and commonly worn by boys from working-class families. They were often very loosely fitted. They were done in many different styles. An early example is worn by an unidentified American boy in 1855. They were often done with military styling such as brass buttons. A good example is an unidentified New York boy about 1850.

Figure 1.-- This American boy was from Allentown, Pennsylvania. The CDV portrrait here is undated, but looks to have been taken in the 1860s. He wears a very plain cut-away jacket.

Cut-away Jacket

Some suits were made with small cut-away jackets. Some showed the blouse or shirt the boy was wearing. Others were worn with vests. These jackets were worn in the late 1850s, but do not seem to have been very common. They were a major fashion departure for boys in the 1860s. We see large numbers of portraits in the photographic record beginning with the earliest CDVs of the early 1860s. These suits were very popular throuughout the 1860s and 70s. They were one of the most popular styles for younger boys. The jacket was commonly only buttoned near the collar. Many suits had tabs to hold the two sides together. There were ties and other means of holding the two sides together. The jacket was due in a range of styles. Some of the jackets wee barely cut away, others were severely cut away. They declined in popularity in the 1880s, althouh a specialized form, the Fauntleroy jacket became very popular. In this regard in foreshowed the Fauntleroy jacket of the 1880s. We are not entirely sure about the colors the suits were done in. We see a lot of light-colored suits. Most do not seem to have done in bright colors. Some specialized styles like Zouace suits might be an exception. Some of the jackets were very plain. Others were heavily decorated. Embroidered desisns were popular. We also note ribbon piping. This style was generally worn by a younger boy. We see boys from about 5-8 years old wearing them. These jackets were very popular in both America and Europe. Here we see an American boy wearing a very plain cut-away jacket (figure 1). A good example is a Scottish boy of a fancy jacket is James M. Barry, about 1866.

Frock Coat Suits

The standard style for men in te mid-19th century was the soinber black frock coat. This was a Victorian standard. This was not a boys' style. We do note, however, teenagers wearing frock coats. A good example is Clarence E. Summer, we think in the 1840s.

Figure 3.-- These American boys wear sack suit jackets in the 1860s. Generally we see older boys wearing them. We suspect that the boys were from Western or rural areas and not the more fashion concious Northeast. Note the small lapels.

Sack Suit Jacket with Lapels

The sack suit jacket with lapels is a style we do not see boys wearing very commonly. It was more of an adult style. This is a style worn by older boys. We see boys wearing suit jackets with lapels as early as the 1840s. A good example is an unidentified American boy. Based on the photographic record, these sack suits do not appear to have been a very common style for boys. This is also true in the 1850s. We begin to see more boys wearing these jackets in the 1860s, mosly older boys who had out-grown collar-buttoning and cut-away jackets worn by younger boys. Boys in the 1860s seem to begin wearing these suit jackets at about 13 years of age, They were always worn with long trousers. And unlike earlier suits, the jackets and trousers usually matched..

Short Jackets

We note boys wearing short jackers in the early-19th century wearing short jackets. These are jackets I think with lapels, ut extending only to the waist. We also notice this in the mid-19th century. A good example is some unidentified brothers in the 1850s. W do not have a full chronology of these jackets, but they seem go have gone out of style in the 1850s. We no longer notice these short jackets in the 1860s. We notice another syle of short jacket in the 1860s--the cut-away jacket.