Figure 1.--This three-quarter view CDV of a fashionably dressed boy shows him wearing a vested cut-away jacket suit with a classic bowler hat. The boy is unidentified, but looks to be about 10 years old. Rather unusually, the boy is looking away from camera with a serious expression. Wears a dark suit jacket with a white dress shirt, and he wears a dark tie, white hanky in his left breast pocket. The photographer was Charles J. Gearing & Co. He had several London studios. Gearing was active during the 1880s.

Many headwear styles developed without any actual inventor, at least that we know of. For bowler hats, however, we know just how they originated. The first bowler hat was created for English landowner, William Coke, in order to protect his head from low branches while out shooting on his Norfolk estate. In 1849, in the St James shop of London hatters, he tested its durability by stamping his foot on it twice--when the hat remained undamaged he happily bought it for 12 shillings. The name of course came from its shape--it looks like an inverted bowl. Today we see the bowler as an adult hat and associate it with bankers. This convention did not exist in the 19th century. Thus we see see boys wearing bowlers in the late-19th century. We are not sure how common this was. The boys weraring bowlers were school-age boys, normally about 10-years or older. We only notice boys in suits wearing them, but at the time wearing suits was very common. Our English archive is fairly klimited so we can not assess popularity and other conventions such as age. We do not see boys wearing them much after the turn-of-the 20th century, although some teenagers may have worn them before World War I.

Creator

Many headwear styles developed without any actual inventor, at least that we know of. For bowler hats, however, we know just how they originated. The first bowler hat was created for English landowner, William Coke, in order to protect his head from low branches while out shooting on his Norfolk estate. In 1849, in the St James shop of London hatters, he tested its durability by stamping his foot on it twice--when the hat remained undamaged he happily bought it for 12 shillings.

Construction

The name of the bowler of course came from its shape--it looks like an inverted bowl.

Conventions

Today we see the bowler as an adult hat and associate it with bankers. This convention did not exist in the 19th century. Thus we see see boys wearing bowlers in the late-19th century. We are not sure how common this was. The boys weraring bowlers were school-age boys, normally about 10-years or older. We only notice boys in suits wearing them, but at the time wearing suits was very common. They did not have the association with businessmen that developed in the 20th century.

Usage

English boys often wore school garments as suits. Private schools in the 19th century had uniforms, but the uniforms at many schools were not radically different than suits at the time. Thus we zre not always sure when we find portraits if the boys is wearing an ordinary suit or a school uniform. The bowler was a hat style not associated with schools. Thus when you see bowlers, it is likely that the boy is not wearing a school outfit, but a regular suit.

Social Class

We have always thought of the bowler hat as a stylecfor the well todo, perhps because it is now a stle often assocuated with bankets at businessmen, at least in Britain. Most of the boys we see in 19th century images look like they came from affluent or at least comfortable circumstamces. This is not the case of all the imsges we have found. Looking at the boy here, we rather get the impression thst he has left school (figure 1). Of course it is impossible cto be sure about this. Note the jacjket looks a little shabby nd worn and hechas almost outgrown iot. We rather get the impression that the boy here has left school, perhaps because the family could not afford further education, and gotten a job somewhere.

Prevalence

Our English archive is fairly limited so we can not assess popularity and other conventions such as age. It is clear to us thst not one of the most common headwear types, English boys wearing bowlers were not rare.

Chronology

We know whenb bowler hats first appeared --1849. Thus we know thsat they are a hat which was not worn until the second half of thge 19th century. We are not sure when boys began wearing them. We do not have any images from the 1850s and our archive from the 1860s is still limited. We do not know how rapidly the bowler developed as a popular hat style. Nor doi we know if boys wotre them from the beginning. Surely there were boys wearing them in the 1870s. We are just beginning to acquire a few images of English boys wearing bowlers. We do not have ny actual images until the 1880s. We suspect tht they were more common with teenagers than pre-teens, but we do notice quite a number of pre-teens wearing them. And we know they were worn in the 1890s. We see boys wearing bowlers in the early-20th century. We no longer see boys wearing them after World War I (1914-18).

Created: 5:45 AM 7/30/2011
Last updated: 7:21 AM 10/3/2011