Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows three siblings, a teenage girl and her younger brothers. The girl wears a heavily decorated flat-brimmed hat.The boys look to be about 5-8 yer old and wear similar knee pants sailor suits. Thir headwear, however, is different. The younger boy wers a school cap. The curly-headed older boy wears a broad-brimmed sailor hat. We would have guessed the younger boy would have worn the sailor hat. We are not sure if mother selcted the headwear or if it was more happanstance. Their retriver dog is at their feet. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1880s to us. There is no studio informtion.

Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 1880s, especially for younger boys. . Sailor hats were common fot younger boys and boaters for a wider age range including older boys. Caps were becoming standard at school. Boys at Eton College wore top hats, but thus was an exception. And it is the peaked, rounded crown cap that was becoming standard as the school cap. Caps were mostly for boys. Girls mostly wore hats. The classic sailor hat was worn by both boys and girls and to some extnt boaters. Other styles were gender specific. Girls hats were also heavly decorated. Most weadwear were hats or caps, but we also see tams and berets.

Hats

Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 1880s. We note boaters which were mostly worn by boys from affluent families. To some extent that was schoolwear, but we are nor sure to what extent. We see a lot of boys wearing boater-like hats, although we see variations from the classic boater like a slightly rounded crown and a slightly upturned brim (figure 1). The width of the brim also varied. The boys on the previous page are a good example. The portrait is undated. We see more caps being worn in the 80s. Caps were becoming standard at school. Peaked caps and sailor caps for the younger boys were worn, but hats seem the primarty headwear type at least for families in comfortable circumstances. We are less sure about working-class boys. We saw coachman's hats in the 1870s, but we have not yet found examples fom the 80s. They had high sides, but not as high as a top hat and were not perpindicular. .

Berets and Tams

We see some boys, mostly from affluent families, wearing berets and Tam O'Shanters, called tams. This was a style worn by both boys, at least younger boys, and girls.

Caps

We also see various caps. The flat cap was never as popular in England as it was in America, at least for boys. We do see working-class adults wearing them, but fewer boys. We are not sure just when they appeared. We do not yet have any 19th century examples, but we think they were being worn at least by the 1880s. We do also note boys wearing rounded crown peaked caps which would eventually be known as school caps. We see boys at private schools wearing them. They began as a games cap, but by the 80s were widely adapted a sandard school caps. We are less sure how common they were for boys attending the tuition free Board Schools resulting from the 1870 Education Act. These boys were less like to have studio portraits made, especially the working-class boys. We also see Scottish styles, especially Glengarries.

Created: 7:41 AM 7/3/2016
Last updated: 7:42 AM 7/3/2016