Figure 1.--This Anerican boy wears a bib-front romper. He is a little older thn most boys wearing rompers and rather unusually wears a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He is on a family beach outing. He seems to be weafing the romper for pddling on the beach. The snapshot is undated, but look like the 1920s to us.

Rompers in America seem primarily a play garment. The great bulk of the photographic record suggests this. Rompers are much more common after the turn-of-the 20th century. And the vast majority of those images are clearly play garments for wear at home. This is reflected in the photographic record. Almost all of the images we ghave found of play rompers are family snapshots and not studio portraits. We note European boys wearing dressy rompers, but this was very rare in America. Almost all of the romper suit images we have archived come from the 20th century. Rompers at the turn-of-the 20th century were mostly worn by boys who previously would have probably still been wearing dresses. They became particularly popular in the 1910s and after World War I (1914-18). They were part of the of a trend toward more casual clothing for younger children and, as a result, were primarly used as play clothes in America.