ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how appearance, and particularly clothing, was used to reinforce social barriers and also to negotiate round them from below. It starts by examining definitions of respectable clothing for children, both as an abstract concept and then as applied to the practice of four major institutions: state-funded schools, Union Workhouses, Dr Barnardo’s Homes, and the Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays. The chapter evaluates the extent to which the polarised presentation of ragged street arabs and neatly dressed institutional inmates reflected reality, this will be done by quantifying the presence of key indicators of respectability (white collars) and of raggedness (obvious wear and tear) in photographs of boys entering Barnardo’s and boys at Board Schools. The opposing concepts of ‘raggedness’ and ‘respectability’ were present from the origin of mass educational provision in Britain.
