Unidentified American Brothers (probably late 1910s)


Figure 1.--Here we have two American brothers photographed in the early 20th century. The impage is undated, but we believe was taken in the 1910s. They wear identical sailor tunics with bloomer knickers, white long stockings, and double-strap sandals. This was a AZO photo postcard. The stamp box had four triangles pointed up, meaning that it was taken 1904-19. The sandals suggest the photo was probably taken in the late 1910s. Unfortunately there is no information written on the back.

Here we have two American brothers photographed in the early 20th century. We know the boys are American, but we have no idea where they lived in America. The impage is undated, but we believe was taken in the 1910s. The boys wear identical sailor tunics with bloomer knickers, white long stockings, and double-strap sandals. The tunic suits appear to be new. Note how long the sleeves are. We have no idea what kind of caps they may have worn. The tunic suits were a dark color, but we have no idea what color. It does not look like navy blue, but a blue shade is the most likely. They wear white dickeies with embroidered stars and shields. This was a AZO photo postcard. The stamp box had four triangles pointed up, meaning that it was taken 1904-19. The sandals suggest the photo was probably taken in the late 1910s. Unfortunately there is no information written on the back. We can, however, make some basic assessments about the boys.

The Boys

Here we have two American brothers photographed in the early 20th century. While we do not know their names, the fact that they were photographed together in a studio and dressed identically almost surely means thsat they are brothers. The boys look to be about 8 and 10 years. We are not sure of course about the age. Perhaps HBC readers will have thjoughts here. They look to be close in age. They seem to us a little old to be wearing tunic suits. They are dressed so elegantly tht we would guess they came from an afflurnt family, probably with a stylish, fashion concious mother.

Portrait

This is obviously a studio portrait. The copy we have, however, was printed with an AZO postcard back. This was a common option at the time and made it easy to send copies of portraits to family and friends. Unfortunately it was not mailed nor is there any information written on the back.

Location

The portrait is American, but we have no idea where in America the boys were from. We see no clues in the portrait that might help identify the location. Perhaps readers will spot something.

Chronology

The impage is undated, but we believe was taken in the 1910s. This was a AZO photo postcard. The stamp box had four triangles pointed up, meaning that it was taken 1904-19. We think the late 1910s is the most likely. The sandals in particular suggest the photo was probably taken in the late 1910s.

Clothing

The boys wear identical sailor tunics with bloomer knickers, white long stockings, and double-strap sandals. The tunic suits appear to be new. Note how long the sleeves are. We have no idea what kind of caps they may have worn. The tunic suits were a dark color, but we have no idea what color. It does not look like navy blue, but a blue shade is the most likely. They wear white dickeies with embroidered stars and shields. The colars are detailed with four dark stripes rather than the more traditional three stripes. They wear the tunics with matching bloomer knickers. The boys wear white long stockings. Black stockings were more common at the time, but boys sometimes wore white stockings for elegant dressy outfits. They also wear souble strap sandals. This was a new shoe style that appearted in the 1910s. Connventions had not developed about their use. Today they look like a casual style. Their mother probably bought them seeing them as a dressy style. They were probably a dark brown color, but we are not sure. For some reason, pne of the older boy's straps is not buckled. This seems strange in such a well posed portrait. We guess thsat mother did not notice this, but pfobsbly was displeased when she noticed it in the final portrait.

Hair

While the boys are dressed absolutely identically. There hair is done very differently. One boy has long wavy hair. He looks a little younger than his brother, but still school age. It seems to us that he would have stood out a bit at school with hair that long. His brother has his short cut very short, but not cropped. We assume the difference is that the boy with long hair was a little younger.

Reader Comment

A reader writes, "The Johnson & Johnson son wore velvet suits until 13 years of age which the mother was proud to report since it is recorded and not by the heir himself. I suspect that there was a great deal of pride in some of the wealthy about being able to extend the innocence of childhood for their children of wealth. I think this was an imitation of royalty who also wore rather elaborate and childlike clothes longer than most other children examples being the Bavarian princes and the Belgian princes where we have photographic records pre-World War I."







HBC






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Created: 10:33 PM 2/10/2006
Last edited: 7:42 AM 2/11/2006