Figure 1.-- This CDV portrait shows a boy wearing a fashionable cut-away jacket in the 1860s. Note the rounded-crown hat which looks to be the same color as the suit.

We note a lot of boys beginning in the mid-19th century wearing hats with rounded crowns. Here the crowns as well as the brims varied widely. Earlier they were well-rounded crowns. By the the 1860s we notice some more shallow crowns. Not all crowns were rounded. We note one boy, C. Stewart, in 1865 who had an indented crown hat. We also notice widely varied brims. These hats are a little difficult to assess becaue they were varied and because photograhy was less common in the 1850s and thus we have fewer images to compare with. These rounded-crown hats were by far the most common style worn by boys in the 1860s. W note them being worn with different types of suits. Strangely we seem to see fewer military styled caps in the 60s than the 50s despite the fact that the Civil War dominated the 1860s. We think the caps may have been more common than reflected in the photographic record. Many mothers may have seen them unapproriate for a formal portrait. We see more of these caps in non studio potography. We note a photograph taken at Bull Run. Scenes photographed after the fall of Richmond show boys wearig them. Here is a larger group of both white and former slave children. (Be sure to click on the imge for the blow upo.) We notice artists showing even girls wearing them. A good example is George Lannbdin in his genre paining, 'The Biddle Children on the Schuylkiil'. In addition the biys are wearing strawhats, omething else you do not see in stidio photogrphy. We note an unidetified Pennsylvania boy wearing a rounded-crown straw hat with a tunic suit, we believe in the late 1860s.

Created: 9:05 PM 4/16/2008
Last updated: 9:05 PM 4/16/2008