Figure 1.-- Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 1880s. We see a lot of boys wearing boater-like hatsby the 80s, although we see variations from the classic boater like a slightly rounded crown. The boys here are a good example. The portrit is undated. We are sure it is not the 1860s, but cold be the late-70s. We see these rounded crown boaters in the 60s as well. The youngest appears to be wearing a jumper with a lace collar while the two older boys are wearing collar buttoning suit jackets with small Eton collars and bowties. The younger boy is wearing knee pants and nee socks. The older boys are wearing long stockings and knickers.

We see boys wearing a variety of headwear in the 1880s, both caps and hats. We have not yet pursued this topic in detail. Our English archive is much more limited than our American archive, but we have begun to acquire more English images. Another problem is that the CDV continued t be an important format in England adter it largely disappeared in America during the 1880s. And we see the headwear being inclused less in DDV portaits and cabinet cards. Hats seem to be the most common headwear types. 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 uotirned brim (figure 1). The width of the brim also varied. 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. 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. These boys were less like to have studio portraits made.

Assessment Underway

We see boys wearing a variety of headwear in the 1880s, both caps and hats. Often headwear, however was not included in the studio portraits. We have not yet pursued this topic in detail. Our English archive is much more limited than our American archive, but we have begun to acquire more English images. Another problem is that the CDV continued t be an important format in England adter it largely disappeared in America during the 1880s. And we see the headwear being inclused less in CDV portaits and cabinet cards, presumably because of the smaller image area. And CDVs were the dominnt format in Englnd during the 70s. Unlike America, we do not see many of the larger cabinet cards. Thus are archive is still limited and we have a rather small sample size, specially dated images. This has forced us to use images in which we estimate the date. We do this with some trpedation, but invite readers to comment if they believe we are wrong about the date. We can usually get the decade right, but not always and we are more accurate with American than European images. Thanks to internet publishing, we can easily correct the date and move it into the right decade.

Headwear Types

Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 1880s, especially for younger boys. . Sailor hats were common for 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 srandard 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.

Gender

Adult headwear was mostly gender specific in the 1880s. Children's headwear was more complicated. Iy was mostly gender sprcificic, but we see some younger children wearing some of the same styles. Sxhool headwear was also gender specufic, except for boaters which both boys and girls could wear.

Age

There were age conventions for many styles of headwear.

Social Class

We see children from families in comfortable cicumstances wearing a variety of headweat, motly hats. Boaters and sailor styles were populr choives. We do not see many caps except for school caps. The classic peaked cap was widely worn by the 1880s. Another cexception are Scottish styles, glengaries and balmorals, made popular by the royal family were an exception. We see some boys wearing what look to us to be adult styles like bowlers, but age specific headwear was more common. We have information on upper- and middle-class fmilies because they could aford to have photographic portaits made. We know less about working-class famoilies because they could least aford to have photographs taken. And of course cost narrowed the heawear choices for working class children.

Created: 2:27 PM 3/20/2015
Last updated: 3:51 AM 6/26/2017