1866 Liberty, New Brunswick NJ (Libertys)
This rendering is based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on this uniform:
None
Written documentation on this uniform:
July 7, 1866, Liberty, New Brunswick NJ, v. National, Washington DC, at New Brunswick: “At 1:15, all being in readiness, the game was commenced, the Nationals going to bat, and the Libertys taking their positions on the field, and pretty stout and manly looking fellows the majority looked in their handsome and appropriate uniforms, viz: blue breeches, with white stockings, blue caps and white flannel shirts, the breeches being somewhat of a novelty.” From the New York Clipper, July 14, 1866.
1866: “Sporting uniforms of blue pants, white shirts and blue caps, the Liberty Club had another successful season [in 1866].” From John G. Zinn, Base Ball Founders (2013), edited by Peter Morris, William Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Len Levin and Rickard Malatzky.
The New York Clipper report above, seemingly undiscovered until now, is the earliest contemporary account of a baseball team wearing knee-pants and exposed stockings. This occurrence predated the Cincinnati Red Stockings’ first use of knickers by one year. And it all may be on account of one thing: the weather. It turns out that July 7, 1866, was a “scorching” hot day in New Jersey and it is likely the Liberty club (and possibly the Nationals?) wore their “blue breeches with white stockings” out of necessity. The Clipper reported that in New Brunswick “the field glowed with heat reflected from the red soil of the surface” and that “the exposure to the heat of the sun […] was enough to weaken the play of any nine.” The Clipper further remarked that the grounds were “in rather poor condition” and that “a drawback being the entire absence of any shade, no tree being on the field, and no tents provided either for players or lady visitors.” There is little doubt that the condition of the day dictated the dress.
The New Brunswick field was located on “high ground about a mile west of the depot,” according to the Clipper, “on the estate of Mr. [James] Bishop, formerly a member of Congress from this district. Mr. Bishop liberally donated the ground to the Liberty and Star Clubs of New Brunswick, for ball playing purposes this spring.” It seems that by the time of the National’s arrival, spring had jumped into summer.
The match in New Jersey was one seven stops for the Nationals in 1866 on their “tour of the North.” They also played games against Athletic and Keystone of Philadelphia, Union of Morrisania (the Bronx), Excelsior of Brooklyn, Gotham of New York, and Pacific of New Utecht, Long Island. Interestingly, the Clipper noted that the Liberty club felt a special connection with the Nationals. Club members saw themselves as “the parent of the Nationals” and that “it was from the Liberty Club [that National] received information and materials when they first organized.” Final score on July 7, 1866: child 29, parent 9.
A short history on short pants.
The word breeches comes from Old English, and is plural in the same way that pants is plural, one for each leg. In Europe, and then America, knee-breeches were the fashionable choice for men for several centuries, finally falling out of favor in the early 1800s. Thanks to Washington Irving, knickerbockers, or knickers, was another name for knee-breeches in the 19th century.
Historians have noted that US Presidents James Madison (died 1836) and James Monroe (died 1831) both clung to the their knee-breeches despite the general switch to trousers and pantaloons during their presidencies. Author Harry Ammon wrote that Monroe often wore “small clothes of an earlier age – usually a black coat, black knee breeches and black silk hose.” In the first half of the 19th century, knee-pants were slowly relegated from high society down to lower pursuits: in the school yard, on the theatrical stage, and on the playing field.
Boxing and prize fighting seem to be where breeches were first found most often. The Spirit of The Times noted that champion fighter Yankee Sullivan (1811-1856) and his opponent both wore “light net breeches and stockings, and blue belts spotted with white” when they faced off on Hart Island, New York, August 29, 1842.
In the late 1850s, the New York Clipper found breeches in many new and unusual sporting arenas. In pedestrianism (race-walking and feats of endurance), Mr. A. M. Jackson of Reading in 1857 wore “a beautiful pedestrian costume […] orange-colored breeches, spangled with dark blue spots, and tasseled at their terminus with blue silk rosettes [and] white stockings” as he attempted to walk for 110 consecutive hours. (He succeeded.) In Boston in 1858, Mr. James Lambert wore “blue velvet knee breeches [and] white tights” while aiming to bounce on a trampoline for over one hundred hours. (He also succeeded.) The Clipper also found breeches in championship dancing. In 1858 contestant Mr. P. Rachel (oddly, also of Reading) wore “dark breeches, white stockings and dancing boots.”
And sometimes, cricketers wore knee-breeches, too. When the Clipper in 1858 printed a remembrance of cricketer Samuel Redgate (1811-1851) it was noted that the Englishman wore “nankeen breeches and stockings” when bowling. (Nankeen is a yellowish cotton cloth. I had to look it up.)
And when Harry Wright and the Cincinnati baseball club first wore short pants in 1867, the New York Tribune noted that the team “appeared on the field in the unique costume worn by the Young America Club of Philadelphia.” Young America was a cricket club formed in Philadelphia about 1855. They were not a junior team as the name suggests but a club of seasoned “new Americans” organized to compete against the rival Germantown Cricket Club, which had been established with an English heritage. In 1865, the Young Americans travelled to New York to play a match against Harry Wright’s cricket team, and afterwards they presented Harry with “a pair of long red stockings.” A photo of the Young America team, dated 1867, showed members wearing knee-breeches and dark-colored stockings, see below.
Dated 1867. Detail view of the Young America cricket team. View showed several members wearing knee-breeches and stockings. Image scan from John Thorn.
However, reports of cricketers wearing knee-pants were rare. An amateur cricket team from Philadelphia called the Twenty-Two Americans took to the field in October 1868 wearing “knickerbocker breeches and crimson stockings.” So cricketers did wear short pants, just not that often. And though baseball borrowed from cricket, it seems the style of wearing breeches slowly emerged simultaneously in both games after the Civil War. It took the fame of the Red Stocking team to push knee-pants into the baseball norm — where the style became common after 1870. And there it remained until George Hendrick of the Cardinals, and others, began to roll down their pant legs in the late 1980s.
So was Liberty the first to wear breeches on the diamond in 1866? Probably not. As an example, there are a non-contemporary reports that pitcher Charley Waker of the Actives of New York, was “one of the first to adopt” knee pants and stockings around 1864 to 1866, and that the Gate City nine of Atlanta wore “knee pants” in an 1866 match. And there certainly must have been other hot days in the mid-1860s when a team decided to don a uniform that was “somewhat of a novelty.” Was Liberty one of the first? More likely.
Info on the breeches of James Monroe from Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity (1990). Info on the breeches of Yankee Sullivan from the New York Clipper, January 7, 1854, recounting an article printed in the Spirit of The Times, September 3, 1842. Info on breeches in pedestrianism from the New York Clipper, September 19, 1857 and April 24, 1858, and in championship dancing from the New York Clipper, August 28, 1858. Info on the breeches of Samuel Redgate from the New York Clipper, June 19, 1858, reprinted from the California Spirit of the Times. Info on Cincinnati first wearing knee-breeches from the New York Tribune, July 16, 1867, research from Tom Shieber. Info on Young America from wikipedia.com, retrieved March 3, 2022. Info about Wright receiving red stockings as a gift comes from Todd Radom, Winning Ugly (2018), citing a Boston Herald interview with George Wright, date not provided. Info on the Twenty-Two Americans from the New York Clipper, October 17, 1868.
Team genealogy: Liberty, New Brunswick NJ, 1857-1870
Liberty was formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1857 and were members of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). They played competitively with other eastern clubs both before the Civil War and after, when they reorganized in September 1865. With the advent of professionalism, Liberty became inactive after the 1870 season. Information from John G. Zinn, Base Ball Founders (2013), edited by Peter Morris, William Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Len Levin and Rickard Malatzky.
Rendering posted: March 4, 2022
Diggers on this uniform: John Thorn, John Zinn, Tom Shieber,