Figure 1.--This English cabinet card portrait shows an unientified boy wearing a knee poants sailor suit with a wide-brummed sailor hat. Notice the chin strap. The boy looks to be about 7-years old. He also has dark socks and strap shoes. wE suspect that the birder terrier was stuffed, but are not sure. The portrait is undated, but the new style mount and hat syggest it was taken about 1910.

Sailor hats were made with chin straps. They wre very useful, especially for the wide-brimmed hats, when worn outside on winddy days. Chin straps would have been necessary and commonly utilizd. We suspect that chin straps would have been coomon for other children's hats as ell, but for wide brimmed sailor hats they would have been a virtual necesity. The children for their portraits commonly do not use the chin straps. The children look like they don't have chin straps, but we believe most sailor hats were made with chin straps. And they were used outdoors. They were simply folded up into the inside of the hat when not in use. They were of course not needed when indoors inside the studio. And as most 19th century photography was studio photography, we rarely see the children with the chin straps. Thys the avaiable photigraphs give the misleading impression that they were not very common. Chin straps by the 20th century were elasticized, at least my cowboy hats had elaticized chin straps by the 1940s. We are not yet sure about 19th century or early-20th century sailor hats.

Created: 3:14 AM 10/11/2017
Last updated: 3:14 AM 10/11/2017