Figure 1.--This CDV shows an unidentified boy with his hair parted in the middle and playing a drum like a Civil War drummer boy. The two-piece button-on suit is a style worn by boys from fashionable, affluent city families, not the boys from farms and small towns who joined military units to serve as musicians. He is also too young to be a drummer boy. The top of the boy's outfit is similar to the top of period tunic outfits. Note the diagonal styling. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the late-1860s. The studio was Miner & Osgood in Olean, New York. There is a name at the bottom of the CDV, but we cannot make it out. Click on the image if you want to have a crack at making it out.

We see many two-piece button-on outfits that were done with tunic styling. Above the waistline they look like tunics. Many done in the 1870s have the characteristic diagonal styling. We see many of these tunic-styled to-pice syits. The tunic of course was a sinle garment alowthing commonly done with matching pants, usually boomer knickers. With the 1860s we see a varietyy of outfits that look rather like jump suits. They were button on matching shirt-like tops and pants. We do not know how they were described at the time. They do not look much like button-on suits because the style for some reason was to cover over the buttons with a kind of matching waist piece. We see these outfits in the 1870s as well. These are the two pirce suits described in detailing. Here we are tlking about the ones where the topps re styled just like the tops of tunic outfits. We suspect that some mothers my have used the tunic topsin sewing the to pirce uits. We can not, owever, confirm this yet.

Created: 6:24 AM 9/27/2014
Last updated: 6:24 AM 9/27/2014