Figure 1.--This is a portrait of an American boy. All we know about the portrait, however, is that it was taken in Aurora, Indiana. We would guess it was taken in the 1910s, about 1915-19, possibly 1920, but not much later. Notice the wide white collar and double breasted styling. The relatively short tunic and kneepants suggest to us that the portrait was taken about 1915-20 rather than the turn of the century. Notice the bangs. That was a popular hair style worn with tunic suits. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

Tunic suits seem to have been particularly popular in America. Much of the information in the tunic section is about tunics in America. We know that they were common in the early ans mid-19th century. Quite a number of naive artists painted boy wearing tunics of various descriptions. They seem less common in the late 19th century, but we see them being very commonly worn at the turn of the 20th century. They were very widely worn in America at this time. Three styles were generally worn, but there were other styles as well. The sailor style was the most popular, but the Russian blouse and Buster Brown styles were also popular. These tunic were mostly worn with above-the-knee knickers and short pants. A related style, the Russian blouse suit was occasionally worn with long pants--mostly in the long pants variant. Very commonly the tunics were white or some other solid color. We are not sure about the colors at this time. We also see tunics made in patterns, but they were not nearly as common. Some information is available on individual boys.

Main Tunic Section

Tunics suits seem to have been particularly popular in America. Much of the information in the tunic section is about tunics in America. We have used amny images of American boys wearing tunics to build the main tunic page and, as a result, our American tunic section is still quite limited. Tunics were one of the more enduring 19th century styles for boys. As the 19th Century progressed, another garment was added to the small boy's wardrobe--a smock-like tunic. The tunic suit was a form of jacket, close-fitting to the waist, with a gathered or pleated skirt below the waist. It was often the first boyish garment purchased for a boy after he was breehed and allowed to stop wearing dresses. Some tunics look like simple dresses. At first gance it is sometimes difficult to distinguish tunics from dresses. The tunic is very plain, often the same cloth--in many cases of a dark or muted color. Tunics are generally styled very simply. Some did have dress liked puffed sleeves. The major distinguishing feature is that tunics in the late 19th Century were worn with knicker-type pants just as they has een worn with pantallets earlier in the decade. Girls who wore dresses would never wear them with knickers.

Chronology

We nelieve that tunics were popular in the early and mid-19th century. Quite a number of naive artists painted boy wearing tunics of various descriptions, although the number od images is relatively limited. We think they were primarily a style worn by the urban elite, probably following European fashions. We also have noted them in the photographic record. A substantial number of photographs first becomes available in the 1850s. Quite a number of the early images show boys wearing tunics that look somewhat like shirts, although often the image quality is not very good or details obscured. Most of the phogogrphs we have found show boys wearing long pants with these tunics, but fashion plates often show bloomer knickers. The detinction is the length and front buttoning. These tunics can also be seen in the 1860s, but seem much less common. A good example is Stirling G. Anderson, we think in the early 1870s. They seem less common after the1860s, but the style becme imensely popular at the turn of the 20th century. We see them being very commonly worn in the late 1890s through the 1910s. The turn-of-the 20th century tunics were long worn long almost to the knees, longer ta the early 19th century tunics. Sometimes you could barely see the bloomer knickers. The tunics on the 1910s might be somewhat shorter as can be seen here (figure 1).

Terminology

Tunic suits is a term that we have applied to these outfits. It is not always the term we have seen used at the time. We have adopted "tunic" for a range of different outfits so we have a consitrent term we can use throughout HBC. It is not a term consistently used at the time to describe these outfits. There was no one term that was commonly used in catalogs and magazines. Rather a variety of different terms were used. Rather "we see a variety of different terms being used, such as sailor suit, Russian or Russian blouse suit, or Buster Brown suit. Or some catalogs did not provide a specifuc term and used not descript terms like "suit" or "costume". Tus we have consistently used the term"tunic" for these outfits so that we can have one single term to use.

Construction

A tunic is a simple garment of ancient origins necause it is so simple, baically two flat pennels sewed togrther. It was thus easy to weave. The tunics worn by children beginning in the 19th century were more complicated with sides and sleeves. Originaly it was a slip on garment with an open central area for the head. Most tunics worn in the 19th and early-20th century had button closures, although it is not not always clear where the buttons were. Side buttons were common became common in the mid-19th century. We are not sure about the early-19th century before photography became available. Some images, mostly taken from the front, do not show buttons. We have never found any images with back buttoning tunics. We have found images of what look like tunics that button in the front. We are not enbtirely sure how to classify these garments. Perhaps readers will have some thoughts. Tunics were done in various lengths. They extended from the shoulders to lenghts above the knee to as low as the calves. Most American tunics were relatively short to about knee length. They were mostltly simple, plain garmenrs, but in the early-20th century we see some fancy ones with elaborate decoratiin and/or detilaing.

Utility

The tunic was not only popular, it was also an all-purpose garment. Some were worn as utilitarian play suits. This is interesting because until the appearance of tunic suits we do not really see play suits. Some tunic suits were quite inexpensive and made in basic materials. Children clothes were fairly standard and mothers used old clothes as play clothes for children. Girls would wear pinafores to protect their clothes. The tunic was a garment which could be used for play, but could also be worn for more formal events by younger boys. We also see fancy, dress tunics that were made for formmal occassion. Often the basic garment was the same, only with fancy trim added to create dressy tunics. These may have been the boy's party outfit or dressiest grment. We see basic tunic suits trimmed with copious amounts of lace. This seems rather popular for white tunic suits. Thus boys could wear tunic suits for a wide range of activities and events.

Social Class Conventions

We see many boys wearing tunics in early- and mid-19th century. Our information is fairly limited. It looks to us that they were mostly worn by relatively affluent boys in towns and cities. Tunics styled somewhat differently were also widely worn in America in the late 19th and early 20th century. We are not sure yet if there were social class conventions. Our general assessment is that they were worn by a wide cross section of American boys, but probably more commonly middle- and upper-class boys. This seems to be situation based on the portraits we have found. Of course it is difficult to know much about the family from unidntified portraits. The well grommed children and the background of snapshots suggest to us that tunics were much more for children from affluent families. The shoes or sandals the boys are wearing are also an indicator. Sandals and strap shoes were also more common with affluent families.

Demographics

We thought at first that most of the boys wearing tunics were from middle- and upper-class city boys. But as we work on tunics, we find quite a number of rural boys wearing tunic suits. We do not notice them much at school but we do see rural boys wearing them when dressing up. We do not have a good fix on the rural families yet. We think that working-class boys in the city did not commonly wear tunics. This may be the same in the rural areas with poor boys less likeky to wear tunics than more affluent farm families. All we can say at this time is that tunics were worn by boys in rural areas, both small towns and farm families. Hopefully we can get a better fix on this as our HBC archive expands. This is a little difficult to assess in the 19th century when mpst portraits were takem in studios. At the turn-of-the 20th century with the advent of the Kodak Brownie and the family snapshot we begin to see outside images which we can place the photograph and tell much more about the family than a studio portrait.

Styles

Three types of tunic suits were generally worn, but there were other styles as well. The sailor style was the most popular, but the Russian blouse and Buster Brown styles were also popular. The Buster Brown suits appear to have been destinctively American. Others like the one here do not fit into any of the three basic types. The detailing pf the tunic depended greatly on the type of tunic. Collar styles depended on the type of tunic. Sailior collars had the prominent "V" front and back flap and were very popular. There were substantial variations in the styling of the sailor tunics. Some were done with traditional styling or some resemlamce to it. We also note sailor tunics done with elaborate lace and ruffle trim. These tunics were of course dressy garments reserved for special occassions. They wee often made in larger sizes than the other tunic styles. Russian blouse tunic did no have collars. Buster Brown tunics had a wide white collar. Many tunics had prominent belts. They were oramental without any real purpose.

Garments

Tunics were normally worn as a kind of suit. Both the tunics and the style and types of pants have changed over time. Thus in addition to the tunic itself there was some kind of pants worn with the tunic. Different terma were used for these pants. Tunics were mostly worn with knickers, long pants, or to a lesser extent kneepants. A related style, the Russian blouse suit was occasionally worn with long pants--mostly in the long pants variant. We notice tunics in the earlky 19th century being worn with both pants or panytalettes. By the mid-19th century we notice tunics being worn with knickers, commonly above-the-knee bloomer knickers. When tunics became popular again at the turn-of-the-20th century, they were commonly worn with above-the-knee bloomer knickers. Less common were kneepants. We are not sure at this time precisely how the different garments compared to those worn in Europe.

Colors and Patterns

Very commonly the tunics were white or some other solid color. White tunics were often used for dressing. Some white tunics were plain while others were quite fancy with added lace and ruffles. We are not sure about the colors at this time. Many illustrations show Buster Brown tunics done in red. We are not sure how commin this actually was. We also see tunics made in patterns, but they were not nearly as common. We have noted pokadot tunic suits. The portrait here shows an Indiana boy wearing a checked tunic outfit (figure 1). Many of these tunic suits were made at home. Thus mother could choose whatever pattern and material she desired. A famous portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt's family, shows their youngest son Quentin wearing a yellow tunic suit. As the published post card had the color added later, we are not sure if this was the actual color.

Age

Tunics suits were worn in the early and mid 19th century and then became popular at the turn-od-the 20th centyry. Most of our information comes from the 20th century. We are not entirely sure about 19th century age conventioins yey. We have, however, a very good idea about age conventionds in the early 20th century. Tunic suits were worn by American boys from about 2-7 or 8 years of age. They were made in larger sizes, but for the most part the boys were mostly 2-7 or 8 years of age. This does not seem to have varied much over time. That means that boys would have worn them to school in grades 1-2, perhaps grade 3. Here the sizes indicated by catalog stores provide a fairly definite age range. A good example is the Montgomery Wards 1914 pages on tunic suits which are offered in sizes for boys from 2 1/2 to 7 years of age. Catalogs provide somewhat varied age ranges, but the general range is very similar. This is generally confirmed by the photographic record. We notice, however, more photographs of boys wearing tunic suits in the pre-school years. There are numerous images of boys archived on HBC to show the age range. Unfortunately only a few of the photographs indicate the age of the child. Here we see a boy wearing a tunic suit in the sailor style (figure 1). A hand written inscription on the back reads: "Detroit Mich. 17 Gardoni My little boy Stanly when he was 7 years & one month taken March 30/1918." This looks to be a outfit Stanley may have worn to school. He would have been in the first grade.

Seasonality

We are not sure at this time about tunic seasonal conventions. We are not sure about 19th century tunics. Our archive is fairly limited. The examples we have found do not suggst seson specialization. At least we do not note boys wearing light-colored tunics or tunics done in light-weight fabric. But as our archive is still fairly limited and we can not yet make a valid assessment. this changes at the turn-of-the 20th century. We begin to notice far more images in the photographic record. We believe that this is at least in part a reflection of prevalence. The difference is substantial enough to firmly show a well-established establish seasonal preference on the part of mothers. The tunics we see beginning at the turn-of-the century were rimarily a summer outfit. Not all are summer tunics, but a substantial majority of the images in our archive tend to be so. We note far more summer tunics than winter tunics in the 1900s and 10s photogrphic record. This also seems to be the case in period catalogs. We see far more offerings for spring-summer tunics. This includes both family snapshots and studio portraits. Studio portraits are taken inside, by light colors and light-weight material destinguish spring-summer tunics as opposed to fall-winter tunics. The Indiana boy here is ckearly wearing a light-weight spring-summer tunic (figure 1). And of course outdoor snapshots normally include seasonal clues. We are not sure just why tunics would be more common for summer wear.

Coordinated Dress

Some parents we think more mothrs than fathers, but not exclusively mothers, liked to dress their children in identical pr coordinated outfits. Tunics were not the most useful outfit for this purpose, especially as tunics were only worn by boys. We see some girlswearing dresses that looked rather like tunics, but we do not see the two commomly worn together. We do see tunics being worn by brothers, but the the age range was limited, primarily to 2-6 years of age. We see some tunics uo to about 8 years of age, but these were less common. Thus for the most part only two boys, at the most three fall into the approprriate age range and only for a brief period. One complication here is that there were many styles of tunics, including sailor, Fauntleriy, and other styled tunics and not just the classic Russian blouse tunic. Thus mothers might choose sailor styles for the children and dress the younger oys in sailor tunics.

Hair Styles

We note American boys wearing a wide range of hair styles with tunic suits. They were mostly short cuts as was the style for boys in the early 20th century. The most popular style seems to have been bangs. We see lsarge number of portraits and snapshots of boys with bangs wearing tunic suits. We also notice various short cuts with parts. Some boys also had short-cropped hair. Much less common are long hair styles such as ringlet curls. These styles were becoming less common after the turn-of-the 20th century, just the time that tunics suits had become very popular. There was an overlap in the 1900s. Ringlet curls were not a msjor hair style worn with tunic suits, but we do note a number of boys with ringlets. The tunic suit was a garment that cold be worn for play as well as dressing up. Which in part explains why we see some boys in ringlets wearing them. Boys with ringlet curls were more commonly dressed formally than other boys.

Out Growing Tunics

We are not positive, but we see some images that look like boys are wearing their smocks like shirts, tucked into their trousers. This is a little difficult to assess. But both the age of the child and the styling of the garment suggest this to us. The garments do not look like sorts and blouses, but much more like the way tunics were styled. It could be that the child was considered to old to be wearing tunics. Here we have no actual written information to comfirm that this was happening. Clothing in reltive terms was more expensive in reltive than is the case today. Perhaps thrifty mothers did not want ot throw away garments that were not worn out.

Gender

The tunic suit was primarily a boy's outfit. They were always presented in clothing catalogs as a garment for boys. We have seen some children wearing them that seem to be girls, although in the early 20th century that was not always possible to tell. Tunics as far as we can tell were always worn by boys in the 19th century. This may have been a little different in the early 20th century. This was more common in American than in Europe. We think that this might reflect girls wearing hand-me-downs rather than mother purchasing tinics for their daughters. A complication here is that some girls' dresses were styled rather like boys' tunics. Some are clearly dresses. Thers are more difficult to descriminate from actual tunic suits. One useful indicator is that boys wore their tunic suits with bloomer knickers in the 20th century and they usually showed below the hem of the tunic.

Look-alike Blouses

We notice blouses styles just like tunic tops. We think that some boys may have worn then tucked into their pants. This was not possible for tunics cut at knee length. It was, howevr, possible for short-cut tunics. And many tunics worn during the mid-19th century were relatively short. Also some tunics may have been cut short as boys grew older and worn like blouses. Some boys as they got older may have not wanted to wear tunics. We do not yet have any confirmation of this in the written record. we only have the photographic record to go on, but it seems to show boys wearing blouses that look very much like tunic tops. The ages involved seem similar to the ages at which boys wore tuics, perhaps at the upper end of the range. This seems quite common in the early-20th century, especially with Russian blouses.

Individial Boys

Quite a bit of information is available on HBC about tunics. Many individual American boys are pictured wearing tunics. A substantial number of boys wearing tunics are archived on HBC, redlecting the importance of the style over time. We have only begun to link them here, but we will persue this project over time. We do not always, however, always know their names. Some are also not dated, but the dates can often be estimated. We will arrange the boys here chronolically which will help us understand chnging styles and conventions over time. Note an Ohio boy during the 1900s. Quentin Roosevelt was perhaps the best known boy at the turn of the century in America and he wore a tunic suit about 1901. Like so many boys of his era, he was later killed innFrance during World War I. We also note a New York boy in 1904. We notice James Jones from Springfield, Illinois wearing an emaculate white tunic suit in 1913.