Figure 1.--We had thought these brothers were Hungarian. We have since learned that they were Austrian boys living in Budapest. They were photographed in 1905. The oldest brother wears his cadet uniform from military school. His two younger brothers wear intical sailor suits. The boys were 6, 10, and 14 years old. The boys were photographed in an styalized boat, presumably to go with the boys' sailor suits. "Siofok" is a holiday resort town on Lake Balaton in Hungary. Presumably the photograph was taken during a family vacation. Note that the older boy wears his cadet uniform rather than a sailor suit even on vacation.

Here we will follow family fashions over time. HBC has decided to also gather information on entire families. One of the limitations of HBC is that too oftn we just view boys' clothing iwithout the contex of what the rest of the family was wearing. This family section will help to compare boys' clothing with that worn by mothers, fathers, and sisters. These images will help show show differences in both age and gender appropriate clothing. Here we are still beginning to collect information. Wevhave not yet been able to find much information on Hungary. Hopefully our Hungarioan readers will help us here with family snapshots and photographs.

Austro-Hungarian Empire (1866-1918)

Photography was invented in France (1839). We have not yet found examples of family portraits done in early processes like Dags and Anbros. It is not until the adoption of the albumen process, CDVs and cabinet cards, that we begin to see Hungarian family images (1860s). Notably, most od whatb we see are prosperous urban families. This is in sharp contrast to Ameruica where we see many farm families coming into towns and cities to have portraits taken. This was uncommon in Hungary because most of the farmers did not own their own land, but instead were the Slovak, Romanian, and Ruthenian (Ukranian) peasantry that worked on large estates. We have few images of their families.

Arpov Family (1870s)

This is a beautiful tinted cabinet photo of a fashionable Budapest lady and her two children. I believe it is the Arpov family. All three undoubtedly wear their best outfits and they suggest a very prosperous family and a mother keeping up with the fashionable trends of the day. We are not sure where father was, especially as this is a studio portrait. The daughter has long braids (Zoepfen). One has been carefull placed in front for best display. She has a very full-skirted white dress, perhaps made of crinoline. She looks about 14-15 years old.The son wears a tunic suit with stripe and button trim. Note the small ruffled collar. The tunic suit has bloomer knickers. He wears white socks only just long enough for his fashionble high-top shoes. They look like button shoesxwhich must have taken a little doing to button up. He looks to be about 8 years old. They were photographed at the Studio Kozmata Ferencz, Pesten. I think the writing on the back is their names.

Budapest Brothers (1892-1911)

Here we do not have informtion on the entire family. We do know that there were four brothers. While we do not have information on the other members of the family, we have very extensive informtion on the brothers over an exteded period, 1892-1911. As we result we have decided to include them her in the family section. This 20-year period provide a wonderful look at boys' fashions at the turn of the 20th century. We at first thought the boys were Hungarian, but we hve since learned that they were probably Austrian.

Hungarian faily in Transylvania (1890s)

Here we have an Austro-Hungarian family in Kolozsvár. This was a city in Transylvania, among the most easterly of the Austro-Hungarian provinces. It was a Hungarian province of the Dual Monarchy. There was a substantial Hungarian and Romanian population and would become a major issue when the two countries became independent after World War I. First Hitler and then Stalin would settled the issue as a result of World War II. Kolozsvár is now located in Romania. The family is unidentified and the portrait is undated. It was probably taken in the 1890s. We see a prosperous-looking mother and father with two children, a boy and girl about 10-13 years old. The boy wears a lighty-colored standard knickers suit with a small bow and dark long stockings. In Europe boys wore both knee pnrs and knickers. In America boys mostly wore knee pants until the 1910s. The girl wears a fancy white dress with a long skirt, also with long stockings. The boy's hair has been basically shaved while his sister has incredible long hair. In Germany and the Austro-Hunmgary it was common to crop the hair of school-age boys. The styles are essentially German, worn by urban populations throughout the German and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The rural poulation, primarily a Romanian peasantry, dressed differently in what we would now call folk styles. The portrait here indicates a prosperous urban family. We suspct that they were Hungarian because the fancy art noveau back of the card has printing in Hungarian. The studio was Dunky which also had a studio in Miskolcz to the west in northern Hungary. We do not know much about Kolozsvár. During World War II the Germans set up a ghetto in the city. In Poland it took months to establish ghettos. In Hungary in was done in a week after the German seized contol of the country late in the War (1944). Conditions were horrible. The ghetto had no facilities and the Jews were tranported to Auchwitz where they were murdered.

Independent Hungary (1919- )

Unidentified Cousins (late-1950 - early-60s)

A HBC reader has provided us a group of Hungarian family snapshots. Thefamily is unidentified. All we know is that they are Hungarian and when the photograsphs were taken. The photographs are not of a single family, but rather a group of about 10 cousins, both boys a girls. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the family. The children seem well dessed, so we assume that the family lived in comfortable, but no luxurious circumstances. The snapshots were taken only a feew years after the Hungarian Revolution brutally supressed by the Soviet Red Army (1956). Thus we thought that the parents were connected with the Communist Party, but perhaps not as the children did First Communions. Perhaps we will eventually learn more about the family.

Family Outing (2012)

A HBC reader sends us a photograph of a Hungarian family enjoying a weekend outing. They are having a fish dinner by a river. The children all wear trendy contemprary fashions. They wear casual sports clothes, artsy sun glasses, and bum bags. The children are wearing the same pan-European styles we began to see in the 1970s. We now since the end of the Cold War scenes of prosperous families like this throughout much of Eastern Europe. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find the former substantial differences between Eastern and Western Europe as more Eastern European countries become adjusted to membership in the European Union. Interestingly, the finances of many of these countries is sounder than several of the Western European countries.

Other Families

We do not yet have infomation on other Hungarian families. Hopefully our Hungarian readers will send along information about their family.

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Created: April 18, 2002
Last updated: 5:04 PM 12/8/2018