Hi Susan,
Interesting question! It was also commonplace in rural Ireland into the
20th century for young boys to wear skirts.  Some explanations
supposedly offered
by locals to folklore collectors included protection from fairies (who were
sometimes said to prefer to "capture" male children over female children)
and a practical choice for toilet training. See pgs 228-231 in Cally
Blackman's 2014 article "Coloring the Claddagh" in *Costume, *Vol 48, no
2-- the article also contains early 20th-c photographs of the practice.

Best wishes,
Meredith Linn

--
Meredith Linn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Urban Studies Program
Barnard College and Columbia University

On Wed, Jul 8, 2015 at 11:36 AM, Susan Walter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> That's a generalization like hairstyle, like boys usually had hair parted
> on the side while girls had it in the middle.  In the photos of Ernest
> Hemingway, his dresses are all gathered.  They have a high yoke collar,
> lace, ruffles, ribbons.  Not a pleat in sight.
> And just yesterday, I ran into a book that mentioned a youngster - a boy -
> who wore dresses till age 15.  Not common so far as I've yet seen.  I will
> find that reference later...
>
> S. Walter
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Chris Garst
> Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 5:44 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: skirts on little boys
>
> I was told years ago that boys had pleats on thier skirts while girls
> skirts were gathered.  Sorry, but the actual citation of this has
> slipped through my sieve-like mind.
>
> Christine Garst
> Archeology Lab
> Kansas Historical Society
> 6425 S.W. 6th Ave.
> Topeka, KS 66615-1099
> (785) 272-8681 ext 151
> Celebrating its 40th year, the Kansas Archeology Training Program received
> the 2015 Excellence in Public Education Award from the Society for American
> Archaeology.
>
> On 7/7/2015 12:17 PM, Jocelyn Knauf wrote:
>
>> Hi Susan,
>>
>> Have you looked at Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in
>> America by Jo Paoletti? It might have what you are looking for - I remember
>> there being a whole section on dresses for children around this time period.
>>
>> Best,
>> Jocelyn
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>  On Jul 7, 2015, at 11:02 AM, Susan Walter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> My Bloomingdales catalog (1886, page 17) shows 4 illustrations of
>>> "children's suits" for boys aged 2 to 5 years.  One of the lads is holding
>>> a small rifle.  All have cropped hair.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message----- From: Robert Leavitt
>>> Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 2:39 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: skirts on little boys
>>>
>>> Susan:  I have biographies of a few western
>>> mining men: one has a picture of the subject, age
>>> 5 in 1898, informally dressed in trousers,
>>> another has the subject, age 4 in 1892, more formally dressed in a
>>> dress/kilt.
>>>
>>> I suspect that the decision as to when to switch
>>> boys into trousers was more a
>>> place/financial/personal decision: place because
>>> ready-made children's' clothing was not readily
>>> available in all places; financial because
>>> ready-mades cost more to buy than the material
>>> for home-mades: personal on two counts 1)
>>> children's dresses/kilts were easier to make than
>>> trousers; 2) At what age would a boy suddenly
>>> realize that boys/men didn't wear dresses? And
>>> start complaining? For diaper-age children, the
>>> ease of changing would be a definite
>>> consideration - snaps weren't in use and
>>> pins/buttons took more effort to use. Looking at
>>> my family pictures, my parents seem to have
>>> begged the question - at least outdoors in good
>>> weather. I have pictures of my brother and me
>>> running around in neither. Of course, for
>>> neonates there was the practicality - with no way
>>> to determine the sex of a child before birth, run
>>> off several dresses/kilts to start with, then
>>> worry about possibly changing later.
>>>
>>> For dating, try to find a time series of
>>> Sears/Wards catalogues. My 1892 Wards shows a
>>> variety of "children's" skirts/dresses with the
>>> only size information being the length, the rest
>>> of the children's department is missing.
>>>
>>> Robert
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Susan Walter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  July 3, 2015
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a project luckily augmented with the family’s photos.  My male
>>>>> subject was born in 1881, and the first photos of him depict him
>>>>> wearing
>>>>> little kilts / dresses.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone got good references about the gender neutral dresses for >
>>>>> young
>>>>> children that was common up even until the 1930s?  I’m not finding >
>>>>> much
>>>>> written at all, except that that both boys & girls wore the same type
>>>>> of
>>>>> garments up to about the age of 5.
>>>>>
>>>>> I’m positing these open bottomed garments were helpful for diaper
>>>>> changing...
>>>>>
>>>>> I used to have a book ­ it was called something like When Boys Woore
>>>>> Dresses ­ and it showed a young boy (the author’s son) onn the
>>>>> cover  > in a
>>>>> short dress.  I cannot find the darned thing, either here in my
>>>>> office  > nor
>>>>> trolling around amazon.  Anyone recognize that?  Or know of other
>>>>> references?
>>>>>
>>>>> I appreciate any help!
>>>>> S. Walter
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> kevin m. donaghy
>>>> graduate student
>>>> Temple University
>>>> Department of Anthropology
>>>>
>>>


-- 
Meredith Linn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Urban Studies Program
Barnard College and Columbia University