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1) She was just 25 years old whenever she became queen.
2) If not for his love of an American woman, Elizabeth's uncle and his children would have sent the royal order of succession on a different path.
3) Her Majesty was styled Queen Elizabeth II to acknowledge her namesake, Elizabeth I of England, and to avoid the double numbering of some monarchs after the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

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Queen Elizabeth II served from 1952 to 2022 as reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and numerous other realms and territories, as well as head of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 sovereign nations that includes many former British territories. Extremely popular for nearly all of her long reign, the queen was known for taking a serious interest in government and political affairs, apart from her ceremonial duties, and was credited with modernizing many aspects of the monarchy.

In September 2015, Elizabeth surpassed the record of 63 years and 216 days on the throne set by Queen Victoria (her great-great-grandmother) to become the longest-reigning British monarch in history. In February 2022, Elizabeth celebrated her Platinum Jubilee-marking seven decades of her service to the Commonwealth.
READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth II: 15 Key Moments in Her Reign
Childhood and Education of a Princess

When Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was born on April 21, 1926, she apparently had little chance of assuming the throne, as her father was a younger son of King George V.

But in late 1936, her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson. As a result, her father became King George VI, and 10-year-old "Lilibet" (as she was known within the family) became the heir presumptive to the throne.

Though she spent much of her childhood with nannies, Princess Elizabeth was influenced greatly by her mother, who instilled in her a devout Christian faith as well as a keen understanding of the demands of royal life. Her grandmother, Queen Mary, consort of King George V, also instructed Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret in the finer points of royal etiquette.

Educated by private tutors, with an emphasis on British history and law, the princess also studied music and learned to speak fluent French. She trained as a Girl Guide (the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts) and developed a lifelong passion for horses.

As queen, she kept many thoroughbred racehorses and frequently attended racing and breeding events. Elizabeth's famous attachment to Pembroke Welsh corgis also began in childhood, and she owned more than 30 corgis over the course of her reign.

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II living apart from their parents in the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle, a medieval fortress outside London. In 1942, the king made Elizabeth an honorary colonel in the 500 Grenadier Guards, a Royal Army regiment.

Two years later, he named her as a member of the Privy Council and the Council of State, enabling her to act on his behalf when he was out of the country.

In 1947, soon after the royal family returned from an official visit to South Africa and Rhodesia, they announced Elizabeth's engagement to Prince Philip of Greece, her third cousin (both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. She had set her sights on him when she was only 13, and their relationship developed through visits and correspondence during the war.

Though many in the royal circle viewed Philip as an unwise match due to his lack of money and foreign (German) blood, Elizabeth was determined and very much in love. She and Philip wed on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey.

Their first son, Charles (Prince of Wales, then King Charles III) was born in 1948; a daughter, Anne (Princess Royal) arrived two years later. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's third child and second son, Prince Andrew, was born in 1960 and the couple's youngest child, Prince Edward, was born in 1964.

Elizabeth and Phillip were married for an extraordinary 73 years, until the Prince died in April 2021 at the age of 99.
SEE MORE: Glorious Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Queen Elizabeth's 1947 Wedding
Queen Elizabeth's Coronation

With her father's health declining in 1951, Elizabeth stepped in for him at various state functions. After spending that Christmas with the royal family, Elizabeth and Philip left on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, making a stopover in Kenya en route.

They were in Kenya on February 6, 1952, when King George VI succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 56, and his 25-year-old daughter became the sixth woman in history to ascend to the British throne. Her formal coronation as Queen Elizabeth II took place on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey.

In the first decade of her reign, Elizabeth settled into her role as queen, developing a close bond with Prime Minister Winston Churchill (the first of 15 prime ministers she would work with during her reign), weathering a foreign affairs disaster in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and making numerous state trips abroad.

In response to pointed criticism in the press, the queen embraced steps to modernize her own image and that of the monarchy, including televising her annual Christmas broadcast for the first time in 1957.

Elizabeth and Philip had two more children, Andrew (born 1960) and Edward (born 1964). In 1968, Charles was formally invested as the Prince of Wales, marking his coming of age and the beginning of what would be a long period as king-in-waiting.

Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977, marking her 25 years on the throne, proved a bright spot in an era of economic struggles. Always a vigorous traveler, she kept a punishing schedule to mark the occasion, traveling some 56,000 miles around the Commonwealth, including the island nations Fiji and Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, the British West Indies and Canada.

Royal Scandals

In 1981, all eyes were on the royal family once again as Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Though the couple soon welcomed two sons, William and Harry, their marriage quickly imploded, causing considerable public embarrassment for the queen and the entire royal family.

In 1992, Elizabeth's 40th year on the throne and her family's "Annus Horribilis" (according to a speech she gave that November) both Charles and Diana and Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, separated, while Princess Anne and her husband, Mark Phillips, divorced.
READ MORE: How Prince Charles and Lady Diana's Wedding Became a Global Phenomenon
Queen Elizabeth's Net Worth

A fire also broke out at Windsor Castle that same year, and amid public outcry over the use of government funds to restore the royal residence, Queen Elizabeth agreed to pay taxes on her private income. This was not required by British law, though some earlier monarchs had done so as well.

At the time, her personal fortune was estimated at $11.7 billion. In another modernizing measure, she also agreed to open the state rooms at Buckingham Palace to the public for an admission fee when she was not in residence.

After Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, Diana remained incredibly popular with the British (and international) public. Her tragic death the following year triggered a tremendous outpouring of shock and grief, as well as outrage at the royal family for what the public saw as its ill treatment of the "People's Princess."

Though Queen Elizabeth initially kept the family (including Princes William and Harry) out of the public eye at Balmoral, the unprecedented public response to Diana's death convinced her to return to London, make a televised speech about Diana, greet mourners and allow the Union Jack to fly at half-mast above Buckingham Palace.

A Modern Monarchy

The queen's popularity, and that of the entire royal family, rebounded during the first decade of the 21st century. Though 2002 marked Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee-50 years on the throne-the death of her mother (the beloved Queen Mum) and sister early that year cast a pall on the celebrations.

In 2005, the queen enjoyed public support when she gave her assent to Prince Charles' once-unthinkable marriage to his longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles.

In her seventh decade on the throne, Queen Elizabeth presided over the pomp and circumstance of another royal wedding at Westminster Abbey, that of Prince William to Catherine Middleton in April 2011. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are in line to become Britain's next king and queen, continued the line of succession with their children, Prince George (born 2013), Princess Charlotte (born 2015) and Prince Louis (born 2018).

A consistent presence by his wife's side and one of Britain's busiest royals for much of her reign, Prince Philip stepped down from his royal duties in 2017, at the age of 96. That same year, the royal couple celebrated 70 years of marriage, making theirs the longest union in the history of the British monarchy. Philip died in 2021, at the age of 99.

In May 2018, Prince Harry wed the American actress Meghan Markle, a biracial divorcée whose embrace by the royal family indicated just how modern it had become during Elizabeth's long reign. The couple had a son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, in 2019, and a daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in 2021.

Rumors swirled at various times that Queen Elizabeth would step aside and let Prince Charles take the throne. In 2017, she delegated some of her royal obligations, such as the official Remembrance Day ceremony, to him, fueling speculation that she was preparing to bequeath the throne to her eldest son. Instead, she remained a consistent, stable presence at the head of Britain's reigning family until her peaceful death in September 2022 at her beloved country residence, Balmoral Castle.

In the final years of her reign, she continued many of her official duties, public appearances and spent plenty of time outside with her beloved dogs and horses. Two days before her death, she officially installed a new prime minister, Liz Truss.

Sources

Her Majesty the Queen, The Royal Household website.
Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen ( Penguin Random House, 2012).
Queen Elizabeth II - Fast Facts, CNN.
"Will Queen Elizabeth Give Prince Charles the Throne in 2018?" Newsweek.

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Queen Elizabeth II served from 1952 to 2022 as reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and numerous other realms and territories, as well as head of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 sovereign nations that includes many former British territories.

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1) Elaborate tail lights, often bright red in color.
2) The miraculous car legend ends one of four ways: Mysterious men appear and tinker with the engine
3) A mechanical toy made out of tinplate and colorfully painted by chromolithography to resemble primarily a character or vehicle.

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The Tinkertoy Construction Set is a toy construction set for children. It was designed in 1914-six years after the Frank Hornby's Meccano sets-by Charles H. Pajeau, who formed the Toy Tinker Company in Evanston, Illinois to manufacture them. Pajeau, a stonemason, designed the toy after seeing children play with sticks and empty spools of thread. Pajeau partnered with Robert Pettit and Gordon Tinker to market a toy that would allow and inspire children to use their imaginations. After an initially-slow start, over a million were sold.

The cornerstone of the set is a wooden spool roughly two inches (5 cm) in diameter, with holes drilled every 45 degrees around the perimeter and one through the center. Unlike the center, the perimeter holes do not go all the way through. With the differing-length sticks, the set was intended to be based on the Pythagorean progressive right triangle.

The sets were introduced to the public through displays in and around Chicago which included model Ferris wheels. Tinkertoys have been used to construct complex machines, including Danny Hillis's tic-tac-toe-playing computer (now in the collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California) and a robot at Cornell University in 1998.

One of Tinkertoy's distinctive features is the toy's packaging. Initially, the mailing tube design was chosen to reduce shipping costs. Early versions of the packaging included an address label on the tube with space for postage. To assist buyers in differentiating between the various offerings, sets were placed in mail tube packages of different sizes and also delineated with a number (e.g.: 116, 136) and a name (e.g.: major, prep, big boy, junior, grad). A colorful "how-to" instruction guide accompanied each set. In the 1950s, color was added and the wooden sticks appeared in red, green, blue, and peach.

The main manufacturing location was a 65,000-square-foot four-story plant at 2012 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Illinois.

Tinkertoys were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York, in 1998.

Hasbro bought the Tinkertoy brand and currently produces both Tinkertoy Plastic and Tinkertoy Classic (wood) sets and parts. The US rights are now owned by Basic Fun!.

In addition to the spools, a standard Tinkertoy set includes:

Wheels, which are thinner than spools, but larger in diameter. Like spools, their center holes have a snug fit.

Caps, originally wooden, but later plastic, cylindrical pieces with a single blind axial hole snugly fitted to the rods.

Couplings, small cylindrical pieces (originally wood; later plastic) approximately 2 inches long and half an inch in diameter, with snug-fitting blind-drilled holes in either end, and a loose-fitting through-drilled hole crosswise through the center of the part.

Pulleys, identical to spools, except that the center holes are loose-fitting.

"Part W", approximately the same size and shape as a spool, but with perimeter holes 90 degrees apart, loose-fitting center holes, and four tight-fitting through-drilled holes parallel to the center hole. This allows for free-spinning parts, and also for construction of "cage" or "lantern" gears.

Short pointed sticks (originally wood, but later plastic), typically red, and flags ("fan blades"), typically green plastic, and various other small parts.

Spools and pulleys all have a single groove around the outside; "Part W" has two parallel grooves.

Sticks (or "rods") are slotted on each end, both to provide slight flexibility when inserted into snug-fitting holes, and to allow thin cards, flags, and strings to be inserted into the slots. They are color-coded by size; in the 1960s-era sets, they were, in order from shortest to longest, orange, peach, blue, red, green, and violet. Each successively longer rod is (with allowances for the size of the spools) the next smaller size times the square root of two; thus any two of the same size will combine with one of the next size up, and three spools, to form an isosceles right triangle (45°-45°-90°).

Tinkertoy sticks before 1992 were made with a diameter of 0.25 inch. The earlier sets had natural wood sticks, but changed to colored sticks in the late 1950s. From measurement, the orange sticks are 1.25 inches long; peach, 2.15; blue, 3.35; red, 5.05; green, 7.40; and, purple, 10.85. Spools are 1.35 inches in diameter with holes of 0.30 inch depth.

Most of the larger sets also include a driveshaft (an unfinished wooden rod without slotted ends, of an intermediate length between "green" and "violet", normally turned with a small plastic crank.

The Ultra Construction Set also includes connectors, small cylindrical plastic pieces approximately 2 inches long with a slot in either end and a slotted hole crosswise through the center of the part.

Sets with battery-powered electric motors were available; these sets also typically included at least one wooden "double pulley" with a single snug-fitting through-drilled center hole, and grooved rims at two diameters, allowing different moving parts to operate at different speeds.

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The Tinkertoy Construction Set is a toy construction set for children. It was designed in 1914-six years after the Frank Hornby's Meccano sets-by Charles H. Pajeau, who formed the Toy Tinker Company in Evanston, Illinois to manufacture them. Pajeau, a stonemason, designed the toy after seeing children play with sticks and empty spools of thread.

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1) During 1955 and 1956, Elvis and his band performed widely, especially in the south, making numerous personal appearances, from high schools to county fairs.
2) The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s.
3) Buddy Holly is a staple of the 1950s. Buddy Holly and the Crickets topped the music charts from 1957 until his death in 1959.

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1) Skirts were tight at the natural waist and were either very full or very fitted.
2) Though young women wore tight sweaters and sought clothes that suited her age, it was young men who really started the so-called “youth culture”
3) The staple of '50s functionality for men and women during the era of swing dancing and diners.

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Fashion in the 1950s saw a clear gender divide. While men and boy's fashion moved towards a more casual day-to-day style, women and girl's fashion prioritized elegance, formality, and perfectly matched accessories. Couture womenswear saw rapid change with new designers such as Cristobal Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy disrupting the overtly feminine silhouette popularized by Christian Dior while novel prints and colors marked a playfulness in fashion for both men and women.

Fashion is rarely contained neatly in one decade, and the popular look that dominated womenswear in the 1950s actually emerged in the late 1940s. When Christian Dior's "New Look" appeared in February 1947, it became an instant success and the nipped-in waist and full-skirted silhouette remained the leading style until the mid-1950s. As the decade progressed, the dominant silhouette became progressively straighter and slimmer, and as fashion began to look to the new "teenager" for inspiration, the elegance and formality of the early part of the decade began to lessen.

As the 1950s began, the initial resistance to the extravagance of the New Look had died down and the silhouette was entrenched in both women's daywear and eveningwear. Dior himself continued to produce designs that followed the feminine line even while incorporating new elements, like the structural collar seen in figure 1. While this shape remained popular until at least 1954, in his Fashion Sourcebooks: The 1950s, John Peacock describes how this figure evolved throughout the decade:

"from the comparatively early days of the 'New Look,' when the square shoulders and masculine details of the 1940s still lingered, through the ultra-feminine and luxurious styles of the mid-1950s - clothes with gently softened shoulderlines, tiny corseted waists, roundly padded hips and long, swirling skirts only eleven inches above the ground" (7).

Even as the silhouette evolved, its core style was seen in evening gowns, day dresses, and separates. A Givenchy dress from 1953 shows how the shape was restyled throughout the decade while remaining true to the nipped-in waist and full skirt (Fig. 3). The pea motif, along with the bright patterned dresses in Better Living magazine (Fig. 2), demonstrates a playfulness that emerged in pattern while the Charles James "Clover Leaf" dress (Fig. 4) and Balenciaga evening dress (Fig. 5) show the experimentation in construction that took place in the fifties.

However, while the look was ubiquitous, it was not the only look that rose to prominence in the fifties. In fact, fashion curator Daniel Milford-Cottam writes in Fashion in the 1950s:

"One particularly striking aspect of the decade was the emergence of stylish options. Two ladies could walk down the street in different outfits, yet appear equally modish, be their skirts full and narrow, or one in a form-fitting sheath and the other in a loose sack dress." (13)

He continues to explain that the idea of choice rather than following one specific style was relatively new in the 1950s. As the decade continued, these choices became varied as new designers such as Cristobal Balenciaga, Charles James, and Hubert de Givenchy introduced different silhouettes. In Costume and Fashion: A Concise History, James Laver writes, "As the decade progressed, clothing became less structured and straighter in cut" (258). Introduced by Chanel, Dior, and Balenciaga around the same time, the straight-cut suit, in contrast to the New Look, emphasized a woman's natural shape with the jacket hanging at the widest point of the hips, as seen in figure 6. In the latter half of the decade, sheaths - like the Givenchy suit in figure 8 - and high-waisted chemise dresses, introduced by Balenciaga in 1957, became popular. The Balenciaga suit worn by model Suzy Parker (Fig. 7) shows the swing outline that he favored.

While designers such as Dior, Balenciaga, and Charles James created beautiful couture pieces, the craze for sportswear continued. Claire McCardell, the American designer who rose to prominence in the 1940s, continued to produce her popular wrap-over dresses and also introduced pedal-pushers with matching tops (Laver 258). While overall, fashion in the 1950s prided elegance, young women turned to McCardell and other sportswear and less formal designs, like the sundress and swimsuit in figure 10. Perhaps one of the most enduring images of everyday fashion in the fifties is the "poodle skirt." Credited to Juli Lynne Charlot from California, these simple felt skirts were cut in a circle and could have any sort of embellishment, not just a poodle (Milford-Cottam 20). They were paired with tight-knitted twinsets and while much more casual than the haute couture coming out of Paris, these skirts still followed the line of the New Look with a defined waist and full skirt as seen in figure 9.

Though it became increasingly acceptable for women to wear slacks for some occasions, overall the fashion mood in the fifties leaned towards femininity and formality. This was especially true in eveningwear as the cocktail dress was introduced to the public. Worn to the new cocktail party, these dresses lay in-between daywear and evening gowns, falling at the length of a day dress but embellished like eveningwear (Fig. 11). For formal eveningwear, even as sheaths and form-fitting dresses became popular, the full-skirted dress remained the mode throughout the decade, like the highly embellished evening gown by Dior in figure 13. The relatively new strapless bodice was especially popular as the pared-down bodice balanced out the wide skirts.

No matter what time of day, throughout the decade, it was exceedingly important that a woman be impeccably turned out. This meant perfectly groomed hair, spotless makeup, and sets of matching accessories. This was encouraged through the glamorous fashion photography of the day (Fig. 14). Fashion historian Gerda Buxbaum writes in Icons of Fashion: The 20th Century, "The long years of deprivation during World War II brought forth a yearning for luxury and fashionable things, and women made a special effort to dress appropriately for every occasion; it was considered imperative that one's accessories matched perfectly" (69). Whether she was wearing a twinset and slacks, a poodle skirt, a sheath dress, or one of Dior's New Look styles, a woman did her best to ensure that she looked pulled together through her accessories and overall styling. Those infamous black-toed Chanel shoes (Fig.12) appeared at the end of this decade, after all.

Though he lived an astonishingly short life, James Dean had an undeniable influence on men's fashion in the 1950s. Starring in only three movies within one year, Dean was killed in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1955. But his portrayal of Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (Figs. 21-22) left an indelible mark of men's fashion. Released after his death, Dean's uniform of a white t-shirt, jeans, and red jacket was easily and readily copied.

Despite his short career in film, the popularity of his Rebel Without a Cause character struck a chord with the new generation of young men. The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes:

"His character defiantly rejects the values of his elders while desperately aching to 'belong' and attempting to find a purpose in life. Dean's performance spoke eloquently on behalf of disenchanted, disenfranchised teenagers and gave them a hero they could respect and admire."

This hero status, along with similar feelings towards fellow actor Marlon Brando's characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Wild One, influenced young men's fashion as they emulated these characters (Buxbaum 77). Together, Dean and Brando ensured the rise of the white t-shirt, jeans, and greased back hair that was pervasive throughout the 1950s.

Although womenswear in the 1950s prided formality, men's fashion moved towards an informality it had not yet seen before. Though young women wore tight sweaters and sought clothes that suited her age, it was young men who really started the so-called "youth culture" of the 1950s. Since the rise of the suit in the 18 th century, men's fashion had seen little dramatic change until the rise of the Teddy Boys in Britain and the rebellious youths who looked to Hollywood stars Marlon Brando and James Dean in the fifties. Significantly, both of these styles were adopted or inspired by working-class men, rather than coming from the elite.

In the years after World War II, tailors on Savile Row in London introduced a slim cut suit with a velvet-collared suit that was referred to as the New Edwardian (Milford-Cottam 53). While it was originally elegant, upper-class men who wore these suits with narrow trousers, in the early 1950s, young working-class men began to adopt and adapt the style for their own purposes. Nicknamed "Teddy Boys" (Teddy being a nickname of Edward), these young men, seen in figure 15, wore extremely narrow trousers, velvet-collared jackets and greased their hair back into quiffs. While the style was popular and signified a certain type of rebellious young working-class man, it also signified a shift in the ability of the working-class young to consume. Laver writes:

"What was important in this development was not the adoption by the working class of an upper-class style, but the fact that young men from poor backgrounds could now afford relatively expensive clothes and accessories and had the confidence to make them part of their own distinctive style." (260)

The Teddy Boys were just one part of a rise in youth culture that was seen across both genders and on both sides of the pond.

As young men in Britain were looking to Savile Row tailoring, the youth in America - and in Europe, too - were looking to rebellious Hollywood stars and singers. With inspiration from Marlon Brando-in A Streetcar Named Desire (Fig. 16) and, popularizing the leather jacket in 1955 in The Wild One (Fig. 17)-James Dean, and Elvis Presley-promoting Jailhouse Rock in 1957 (Fig. 18)-young men in the US began adopting a working-class look of jeans, a white t-shirt, and leather jacket. Like their British counterparts, American men adopted the greased-back quiff hairstyle to go along with their casual look. This style was seen as a youthful rejection of their parents' generation, which earned them a rebellious and trouble-making reputation, much like that of the Teddy Boys in Britain. The clothes they adopted, in contrast to the elegant suits of their British counterparts, were items associated with the working-class: jeans had previously only been acceptable for farmers and other outdoor laborers, never for everyday wear.

Even as young men in both Europe and the United States began adopting new styles, formal daywear and eveningwear for men continued along the same lines throughout the 1950s. Suits maintained the baggy shape that had started in the forties, while skinny ties, like the one in figure 19, rose to prominence. The biggest change in men's formal wear was the increasing presence of color, as seen in the ad for the bright yellow Arrow shirt (Fig. 20). Tuxedo accessories such as ties and cummerbunds added a pop of color, while less formal eveningwear such as the smoking jacket might come in a color other than black. Color began to creep into daywear shirts and sweaters, as well (Milford-Cottam 48-51). The Hawaiian shirt, first seen in the late forties, continued to be a popular option for men throughout the fifties.

Children's fashion in the 1950s echoed the trends found in their adult counterparts. Young girls wore dresses with full skirts and perfectly matching accessories while young boys saw their clothing options becoming more casual. New synthetic materials, which were also being used in adult clothing, were increasingly used for children's clothes as they were easier to launder.

In previous decades, young boys had typically worn collared shirts, ties, blazers, and shorts until they were old enough to transition to long trousers. However, in the 1950s, like teenagers and young men, it became increasingly acceptable for boys to wear jeans for most occasions. It became rare throughout the decade for young boys to wear ties and collared shirts were abandoned in the most casual settings. Colorful and patterned short-sleeved, collared shirts were popular options for everyday wear (Fig. 23). Knitted sweaters and cardigans, popular in the forties, continued to be popular in the fifties as it became less common for young boys to wear jackets or blazers. SJ Stratford writes on Love to Know, "Although conformity was the guiding principle for everyone's dress, boys were able to enjoy a level of comfort and casualness that they hadn't before and that girls would not share for another few decades."

In contrast to this casual approach to boys' fashion in the 1950s, like their mothers, young girls' wardrobes prided formality and perfectly matched accessories. Primarily wearing dresses, these styles began by following the lines of the previous decade: natural waists, full skirts, and puffed sleeves. As the decade progressed, dresses became more varied and you can see options coming into play as they did in women's wardrobes.

Dropped waists (still with full skirts, like that in figure 25), smock dresses, pinafores, bold colors, and playful patterns all offered different styles. For less formal occasions, girls might wear a blouse and full skirt held up with suspenders (as seen on the right in figure 24) and covered in a matching jacket or cardigan. Novelty items like the poodle skirt (Fig. 28) were also popular, while sheath dresses and slacks became acceptable options later in the decade. Stripes, florals, plaids, rickrack (Fig. 27), bows, and more could all be found embellishing girls' clothes. Whether at a party or at school, these looks were almost always accompanied by white ankle socks and shiny black patent leather shoes and carefully styled hair perhaps adorned with a ribbon or two bows, as evidenced in the Sears ad in figure 26. At home, girls might have worn overalls or playsuits in casual settings.

Upon becoming a father himself, womenswear designer Charles James designed a line of infant clothes in 1956. The cotton playsuits, shorts, and dresses were simple yet finished with beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons and other luxurious touches (Fig. 30). But what made the line significant was its construction, as seen in the multi-piece sunsuit on the left in figure 31. The Met writes of the blue playsuit in Fig. 29:

"James considered all practicalities, designing this playsuit with curved, crossing straps, cut in one with the front panels, that fit to the body and stay in place, and with diaper-front shorts that open to lay flat for ease of ironing. Its curved fronts follow the lines of a child's rounded belly, while accommodating and hiding the bumps of diapers" (Playsuit, 1956).

The classic pieces come in reds and blues, show subtle nautical inspiration, and give a glimpse into luxury infant pieces from the decade.

References:

Bramlett, Lizzie. "Interview with Juli Lynne Charlott." The Vintage Traveler, April 28, 2010. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://thevintagetraveler.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/interview-with-juli-lynne-charlot/.

Buxbaum, Gerda. Icons of Fashion: The 20thCentury. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2005. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/773599428.

"James Dean." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Dean-American-actor.

Ewing, Elizabeth. History of 20thCentury Fashion. 4th ed. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 2001. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/456545252.

James Dean. "Biography." Accessed May 29, 2019. https://www.jamesdean.com/biography/.

Laver, James, Amy De La Haye and Andrew Tucker. Costume and Fashion: A Concise History.5th ed. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2012. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/966352776.

The Met. "Playsuit, 1956." Accessed May 29, 2019. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/767965.

Milford-Cottam, Daniel. Fashion in the 1950s. Oxford: Shire Publishing, 2017. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/992690449.

Peacock, John. Fashion Sourcebooks: The 1950s. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/924866505.

The People History. "Vintage 1950s Children's Fashion Clothes." Accessed May 29, 2019. http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1950skidsfashion.html.

Stratford, SJ. "1950s Kids Clothing." Love to Know. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://childrens-clothing.lovetoknow.com/1950s_Kids_Clothing.

Victoria and Albert Museum. "History of Fashion 1900 - 1970." Accessed April 30, 2019. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-fashion-1900-1970/.

Victoria and Albert Museum. "Introduction to 20thCentury Fashion." Accessed April 30, 2019. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/introduction-to-20th-century-fashion/.

Events:

1950 - Father of the Bride, starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, is released. The lace wedding dress worn by Taylor in the movie is considered one of her most iconic books.

1951 - American disc jockey Alan Freed popularizes the term "Rock 'n' roll." New teen styles emerge linked to the music, such as "Teddy boys" and prom dresses.

1952 - Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road, which inspires a generation of beatniks who wear slim-fitting, black clothes, berets, and dark glasses. Audrey Hepburn's Funny Face in 1957 further popularizes the style. Balenciaga shows the sack dress, an early stylistic move toward looser-fitting garments, which appear in the late 1950s and 60s, and include cocoon coats and shift dresses.

1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and London couturiers including John Cavanagh, Victor Stiebel, and Mattli make ball gowns for guests at coronation balls and dances. The Wild One is released; Marlon Brando's representation of disaffected youth popularizes blue jeans and leather jackets. Pierre Cardin shows his first collection in Paris.

1954 - Easy-to-wash and easy-to-dry nylon twin sets advertised in British Vogue fashion magazine.

1955 - Rebel Without a Cause is released, launching its star, James Dean, as a style icon for the rising youth culture. His death a year later cements his legendary status. Stiletto heels are popular by the mid- 1950s aided by new technology. Ultra-thin, ultra-high steel heels could sustain great pressure in comparison to wood heels. Mary Quant opens her influential store, Bazaar, in London.

1956 - Movie star Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco in a religious ceremony, wearing a lace wedding dress designed by Helen Rose.

1957 - Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, marks the spread of rock- and-roll style.

1958 - The youthful Yves Saint Laurent shows his first collection at Dior- Trapeze- after Dior's death in 1957.

1959 - Debut of Barbie doll, marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model." Lycra, also known as spandex or elastane, is invented. It revolutionizes performance sportswear and then fashionable dress.

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Fashion in the 1950s saw a clear gender divide. While men and boy's fashion moved towards a more casual day-to-day style, women and girl's fashion prioritized elegance, formality, and perfectly matched accessories.

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1) won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1955.
2) 1956, appearing in 1,382 games and recording a . 311 career batting average.
3) Robinson was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year on the ballot.

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When Was Jackie Robinson Born?

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers. He was the youngest of five children.

After his father abandoned the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California, where his mother, Mallie, worked a series of odd jobs to support herself and her children. Though Pasadena was a fairly affluent suburb of Los Angeles at the time, the Robinsons were poor, and Jackie and his friends in the city's small Black community were often excluded from recreational activities.

That began to change when Jackie enrolled at John Muir High School in 1935. His older brother Mack, a silver medalist in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, inspired him to pursue his interest in athletics, and the younger Robinson ultimately earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football and track while at Muir.

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports. Following the death of another older brother, Frank, in a motorcycle accident, Jackie decided to honor his memory by enrolling at UCLA in 1939.

There, he became the first Bruin to earn varsity letters in four sports - the same four in which he starred in high school - and he won the NCAA long jump championship in 1940. Jackie also met his future wife, Rachel, while at UCLA.

Did you know? In 1997, 50 years after Robinson integrated baseball, his number, 42, was permanently retired by every team in Major League Baseball.

Jackie Robinson in the U.S. Army

Jackie ultimately left college in the spring of his senior year, just a few credits short of his graduation. He accepted a job as an athletic administrator, but his dreams remained focused on the field of play.

He spent two years playing semi-professional football for integrated teams in leagues in Hawaii and California before being drafted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942, during World War II, although he never saw combat.

He was accepted into Officer Candidate School and was assigned to segregated Army units, first in Kansas and then in Texas. During this time, however, he remained close to Rachel, with whom he became engaged in 1943.

In 1944, Jackie was nearly court-martialed after he boarded a bus at Fort Hood in Texas and refused the driver's order to sit in the back, as segregationist practices in the United States dictated at the time.

He was acquitted on all the charges and court-martialed, but it has been said that his experiences during the proceedings likely shaped his response to the racist taunts he received, a few years later, from fans and fellow players at the start of his professional baseball career.

Jackie was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1944, and he took a job coaching basketball at a college in Austin, Texas.

Jackie Robinson's Professional Sports Career

In early 1945, Jackie Robinson was signed by the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, where he starred for one season, hitting .387.

At the time, Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey was scouting the Negro Leagues, looking for players who not only had the talent but the demeanor to withstand the pressures associated with integrating Major League Baseball. Robinson was one of several players Rickey interviewed in August 1945 for assignment to the Dodgers' farm team in Montreal, the Royals.

It is said that during the interview, Rickey demanded that Robinson not respond when on the receiving end of racial abuse. Robinson reportedly said, "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" To which Rickey replied that he was looking for a person "with guts enough not to fight back."

Once Robinson agreed to "turn the other cheek," a Biblical phrase used by the religious baseball executive, he was assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season, where he was embraced by Montreal fans and batted an impressive .349. His performance both on and off the field earned him a call-up to Brooklyn the following season.

Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers

His debut with the Dodgers in 1947 was greeted with a lot of attention-not all of it positive. Although Robinson quickly proved he belonged as a player, the color of his skin was an issue for opposing teams and fans.

Hearing racist taunts from fans and players prior to a game, Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese is said to have put his arm around Robinson on the field to indicate that he was accepted by those wearing a Brooklyn uniform. Still, Robinson endured racist obscenities, hate mail and death threats for much of his career.

It was his play in the field that ultimately silenced his critics. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, he earned the inaugural "Rookie of the Year" award. Despite having been signed by the Dodgers at the relatively old age of 28, Robinson would go on to hit .311 over a 10-year career. He became the first Black player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average, most stolen bases (37) and achieving a career-high 124 RBI. Robinson was an All-Star every year from 1949-1954. He led Brooklyn to a World Series championship over the rival New York Yankees in 1955.

Robinson retired after that season, and thus didn't follow the Dodgers when the club moved to Los Angeles following the 1957 campaign.

Jackie Robinson Quotes

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead."

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."

"As I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a Black in a white world."

"Above anything else, I hate to lose."

Jackie Robinson: Legacy and Death

After retiring from the Dodgers, Robinson acted as a sportscaster, worked as a business executive at Chock full o'Nuts and was active in the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

Weakened by heart disease and diabetes, Robinson died in 1972 at the age of 53 from a heart attack suffered at his home in Stamford, Connecticut.

Thousands attended his funeral service, including former teammates and other professional athletes. His eulogy was delivered by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who declared, "When Jackie took the field, something reminded us of our birthright to be free."

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship

Following his death, his wife Rachel, by then an assistant professor in the Yale School of Nursing, established the Jackie Robinson Foundation. In addition to recognizing other trailblazers in sports, the foundation awards the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship to minority students.

Robinson's jersey number 42 was retired by all big-league teams in 1997, meaning it could no longer be worn by any player. Those players already wearing the number were allowed to keep it.

The gesture was meant to honor Robinson's legacy and the historic impact he had on professional baseball, sports in general and, by extension, American society, and in recognition of the difficulties the athlete faced in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier.

Jackie Robinson Movies: 'The Jackie Robinson Story' and '42'

In 1950, Robinson played himself in a movie on his life called " The Jackie Robinson Story." And in 2013, a movie about Robinson's life called " 42 " was released to critical acclaim, with his widow involved in the production.

Sources

Baseball Hall of Fame. "Jackie Robinson." BaseballHall.org.
Lamb, C. (2019). "How Jackie Robinson's wife, Rachel, helped him break baseball's color line." TheConversation.com.
Breslin, Jimmy. (2011). Branch Rickey: A Life. Penguin Random House.
Jackie Robinson: 7 memorable quotes. ABC7NY.com.
Jackie Robinson. Baseball Reference.

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Jackie Robinson, the first Black athlete to play Major League Baseball, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, a date now famous as Jackie Robinson Day.