Union Suit Fan: 

My buddy likes to strip to his Long Underwear
before beginning his Yoga Meditation
Union Suits are much more comfortable
than Yoga Pants

Boy Gives Away Clothes; Goes Home in Union Suit

Sherman, Tex., Dec. 22, 1916,- Howard Brown is just the age to interpret everything literally. He recently heard a sermon on the text: "It is more blessed to give than receive." The words "even the coat on your back" stuck in his mind.

His mother was horrified when Howard returned from school in his union suit - minus his shirt and trousers. He had met a little boy in rags who was cold, he explained, and had put the sermon into practice.  

  

Thanks to Clay from Dallas, Tx who forwarded this article regarding his great grandfather who as a 12 year old boy generously stripped to his long union suit underwear to literally give away the clothes off his back to a less fortunate little boy. "Boy Gives Away Clothes; Goes Home in Union Suit" read the headline accompanying this newspaper article which first appeared in the Sherman Texas Democrat. The story was carried in newspapers across the nation just in time for a heart-warming story at Christmas time. What a great kid young Howard was!

Have an article, story, or favorite photograph regarding union suits? Be sure to email those to me for publication in Union Suit Fan. Only your first name and home town will be referenced in this blog.

Attention Union Suit Wearers:
Before Stepping Out in Your Long Johns,
Do What He Does...
Check that Your Flap is Buttoned !

Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders:
                         Union Suit Fan

Actor Norm Macdonald in a Union Suit
KFC Commercial

Colonel Sanders, southern gentleman, no doubt
wore long-handled Union Suits under his
Famous White Suit

Humorous Commercial Featuring
Long Underwear

 
Presidential Underwear

Abe Lincoln's Union Suit?


Regarding the image depicted here, Honest Abe and his four boys may possibly have worn Union Suit Underwear. But like most men and boys in the early to mid 19th century, Abe and his sons probably wore separate long-handled, ankle length "drawers" and long sleeved undershirts. Although Union Suits could have been made by wives and mothers on an individual basis in Lincoln's time, Mary Todd Lincoln probably did not have or take time to sew Union Suits for the five males in her famous family.

Some believe that "Union Suits" became popular and got the name because Union soldiers, from drummer boys to generals, wore this type of long underwear in Civil War times. But no one knows for sure. Union Suits, drawers and undershirts combined into one garment, were not mass manufactured in the United States until the 1870's, after Lincoln's time. 

The one-piece underwear which buttons up the entire front of the suit and with a buttoned flap in the rear became very popular with men and boys beginning in about 1875 or so. Union Suits, of course, are still popularly worn to this day by men and boys today, including me.