I just got back from the Caledonian Club of San Francisco's 146th annual Highland Games. Yep, they've gone on every year since 1865, even through earthquakes and World Wars.

There was an interesting history of the Club and the Games in the programme, and this peaked my interest: the club was founded in 1866, had 97 members in 1867, 650 members in 1894, and 1,225 members in 1896.

1,225 members in 1896! Now, the population of San Francisco in 1897 was 300,000 (at least that's the number I found online) meaning that more than 1 in 300 San Franciscans was a member of the Caledonian Club.

I don't have numbers for the New York Caledonian Club, but it was founded in 1856, the Games from 1857. A regiment was raised, largely from Club members, in 1858.

The point is that Scottish immigrants were a much larger proportion of our population at that time, and these people formed clubs, held Games, and dressed up in kilts.

Here are some of them, first some photos taken in New York:









and Brooklyn:



and New Jersey:



and St Paul:



This is good to keep in mind, lest someone might think that the wearing of kilts here is a relatively recent thing.

(Note that the members of the 79th New York, and two of the civilians, are wearing sporrans with 5-lobed cantles, which I have never encountered in images from elsewhere, not even in The Highlanders of Scotland.)