Figure 1.--This brothers were from Reading, Pennsylvania. Both boys wear tunic suits. The older boy has a sailor-styled tunic done in checks. We are not sure about the color, possibly red. The portrait is not dated, but we woyld guess was taken about 1905. The boys look to be about 2-5 years old.

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. Even these terms were not used consistently. And some catalogs did not provide a specific 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.

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Created: 5:53 AM 8/4/2008
Last edited: 5:53 AM 8/4/2008