Figure 1.-- This little American boy wears a pastel-colored tunic that looks very much like 20th century tunics. Unfortunately we do not know what color it was. A major difference is that bloomer knickers are not seen below the hem of the tunic. It is the only exanple we have found before the turn-of-the 20th century. The shoes seem to confirm that ot was taken as indicated in 1885. The portrait is somewhat unusual. Portraits with dates in the image are very rare. It is aather narrow cabinent card (3 x 6 inches. Also unsual is the mount. the single line border with out the photographers information at the bottom is more like a 1860s CDV than a 1880s cabinent card.

Tunics do not seem a very popular boys' style in the 1880s. Tunics were widely worn at the mid-19th century and were very popular in the early 20th century. We have found very few examples of tunics, however, in the late 20th century, especially during the 1880s. We thunk that is probably a good indicatpr of popularity. Tunics would have been most common in affluent or at leat families in confortable circumstances. Neither do we see tunics being advertized in 1880s catalogs, although are catalog entries for the decade are still limited. Our archive of 1880s images, however, is sizeable. This makes it difficult to assess the syling of 1880s tunics. While we have found very few photograohs ot boys wearing tunics suits in the 880s, we have found a few, including one unidentified boy in 1885 wearing a tunic styled like 20th century tunics. A reader agrees that the tunic looks more like 20th century styles. She provides this assessment, "Difficult. Yes, the line frame on the mount was used in earlier cdvs. But is this a cabinet or a CDV? (It was a cabinent card.] In earlier times it seems to have been framed. why do you think that "The shoes seem to confirm that ot was taken as indicated in 1885." They do look modern to me. In 1885 they should have been buttoned-up. I have never seen a tunic like this in the 1880s. The date on the picture does not really fit." Idon't think it was framed. It looks to have corners used to place it in a photograohic album. The shoes are an interesting question. But I don't note boys in the early 20th century wearing tunics with shoes like this. Our reader adds, "Here I really disagree. When we discussed buttoned and laced high top shoes last year you wrote to me: iYou are ahead of me there. That is something I have not paid a lot of attention to yet.' These shoes really do not look like 1885. To me the mount does not look especially old. The line around the picture as decorative element was still in use in the 1890s for CDVs and Cabinet cards, for framed pictures maybe even later. This mount is trimmed and was once glued in a frame or what ever. You can see that especially in the upper right corner. The chair in the background looks old but is not such a strong indicator for the 1880s. Often these props were used for decades. Anyone might have written the 1885. Maybe it is just wrong."

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main American tunic 19th century cronology page]
[Return to the Main American tunic cronology page]
[Return to the Main American tunic page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 3:45 AM 8/5/2008
Last edited: 1:42 AM 8/8/2008