ABSTRACT
This chapter analysis material sources separately in order to consider the biases inherent in the data, before they are compared to give general conclusions about consumption practices. It compares the data on consumption derived from all the photographs with the advertising data. The chapter presents a detailed case study of the consumption of different types of sailor suits. It provides autobiographies that will be used to illuminate the ways in which boys themselves understood clothing consumption. A search of archives, publications, and online collections revealed 80 dated portrait photographs of non-royal boys and a further 11 images of royal princes from the period 1870–1900. This sample included twelve sets of siblings and eight sets showing a single sitter over a number of years. A more representative sample of images was obtained from twenty-five school group photographs. These showed a wider range of children, including some whose families might not have been able to afford individual portraits.
