Unbreeched Boys

Who is this little cutie? Why, none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president who led the United States through the Great Depression and World War Two!

So…why were he and most other young boys dressed like this prior to the 1900s?

In the 1600’s, 1700’s, and 1800’s, boys and girls were BOTH commonly put in dresses. Pants back then were called breeches, and breeches had a lot of complicated buckles and snaps that were difficult for tiny little hands to work. So, for potty-training purposes, all young kids wore what were basically dresses. Also, clothing was harder to come by (clothes were made by hand) so a long dress could last a kid a lot longer as they grew into it.

When a boy got old enough, he would have a “breeching party”, where he would get his first pair of pants, and at that point the father would pretty much take over the job of raising the boy (it was mostly the mother’s job up until the breeching party.)

There are more examples of this on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)