Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentified American boys. They may be twins as they are about the same size, but one boy looks older. We would guess they are about 4-5 years old. They are wearing identical parterned Russian blouse tunics. Curiously despite the identical outfirs which must mean they are brothers, mother has done their hair differently. They seem to have different opinions about having their portrait taken. It is a postcard back portrait. It is a divided back, 4 triangle up AZO stamp box. This would date it to about 1904-18. The phograph was taken by the Miller Studio in Cleveland, Ohio.

Some parents we think more mothrs than fathers, but not exclusively mothers, liked to dress their children in identical pr coordinated outfits. Tunics were not the most useful outfit for this purpose, especially as tunics were only worn by boys. We see some girlswearing dresses that looked rather like tunics, but we do not see the two commomly worn together. We do see tunics being worn by brothers, but the the age range was limited, primarily to 2-6 years of age. We see some tunics uo to about 8 years of age, but these were less common. Thus for the most part only two boys, at the most three fall into the approprriate age range and only for a brief period. One complication here is that there were many styles of tunics, including sailor, Fauntleriy, and other styled tunics and not just the classic Russian blouse tunic. Thus mothers might choose sailor styles for the children and dress the younger boys in sailor tunics.

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Created: 4:59 AM 9/15/2016
Last edited: 4:59 AM 9/15/2016