Figure 1.--This unidentified family in a cabinet card portrait has kids about 3-13 years old. One boy wears a wjite tunic suit. He looks to be about 6 years old. The image suggests to us that the family had a modest income, both because of the way the older boy is dressed in a basic shirt, the heavy footwear, and the background which I take it is the front of their home, presumably taken by a an itinerate photographer. The cabinet card looks like the 1900s to us, but the lace up shoes suggest the 1910s. Thus we would guess the portrait was taken about 1910. Notice the convention of white clothing and black long stockings for the younger children.

Tunics styled somewhat differently were more also widely worn in America in the very late-19th and early-20th century. This was especially true after the turn-of-the 20th century. We are not sure yet about the social class conventions. Our general assessment is that they were worn by a much wider 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. There is no doubt that the emaculately dressed and groomed boy on the previous page came from an affluent family (figure 1). The shoes or sandals the boys are often wearing are also an indicator. Sandals and strap shoes were also more common with affluent families. For the first time, however, after the turn-of-the 20th century we see boys from more modest families commonly wearing tunic suits. The fact that it was an expensive outfit was probably a factor. Very few families, including working-class families, could not afford a tunic suit.

Created: 11:56 PM 5/7/2017
Last edited: 11:56 PM 5/7/2017