Figure 1.-- This little Amnerican boy was photography by Manley's Gallery, but we are unure about the city. The portrait was probably taken about 1890. He wears a kilt suit with a Fauntleroy blouse. What we can't make out is his headwear. We think it may be a mortar board, but we are unsure. Note the tassles.

Our substantial Ameican archove provides a vast repository of fashion information. Most of the imfes give very clear depictions of the grmnents, including headwear. We note, however, a few caps or other headwear types that we are unable to identify. I some cases the images are not clear. In othercase we simply do not know what to call the headwear. We note a cap that looks rather like a mortar board, but different. We note some caps that we have not earthly idea what they are. Part of the problem is photography. Ther images as valuable as they are, do not always give a good idea. Hopefully HBC readers will be able to provide some insight to assist us identify the headwear involved.

Image 1

This little Amnerican boy was photography by Manley's Gallery, but we are unure about the city (figure 1). The portrait was probably taken about 1890. He wears a kilt suit with a Fauntleroy blouse. What we can't make out is his headwear. We think it may be a mortar board, but we are unsure. Note the tassles. He isd very young looking, perhps looking 2 years of age. That is younger thn most boys wearing kilt suits, the more modern pattern was that boys this age wore dresses and switched to kilt suits at about age 3 years or just before age 3 years. And of course in the 1890s, the centuries old convntion of youinger boys wearing dresses was beginning to end.

Image 2

This American cabinet card was fully colorized and rtfully done. This was not all that common for cabinet cards. It significantly added to the cost of the portrait. The boy wears a knee pnts sailor suit with stripes every wear. Strips on the collar were if not standard, very common. This boy in addition to the collar has stripes on the blouse front and sleeves as well as his knee pants. But what is really interesting is the cap he is holding. We have sbsolutely no idea just what this cap was. We are not sure what it would have looked like if he was crually wearing the cap. The cap was cerainly not a sailor style. The boy looks to be be about 12 years old. The portrait is not dated, but the edge pinkingb enbles us to date it to about 1890, more definaively 1888-1895. The long stockings and high-top shoes were fairly standard. The studio was DeWitt in Scranton, Pennsdylvania.

Created: 9:12 PM 2/1/2008
Last updated: 3:05 PM 3/17/2022