Figure 1.--Here we see workmen and some kind of a factory shop, we think in the 1900s. Notice that most wear bowler hats. We re not sure who the boy is, perhaps the son of one of the workers or the hop foreman. He waes a rounded crown hat. This was the major hat style boys wore in the 19th century, but by the 1900s going out of style. Click on the image for a closer look.

We see men of all social classes wearing headwear, and this included hats. The images from the 1900s look rather srange to us today. Some wore caps, nut we see images of industruial wiorkers dressed in bowlers and other rather formal looking hats. Caps were becoming more common for workers, but in the 900s we still see quite few wirkers wearing hats. And the same was the case for boys. In fact boys rather led the shify to caps. Social class factors were involved here. The well-to-do only wotr hats for formal occasions. The bowler was very popular with the working class. In facr, it waa commonly worn in the West, Hollywood not respecying. Cowboys and lawmen wore themn as well as industrial workers. We still see that in the 1900s. We saw some voys wearing bowlers in the lae-19th century, but we no longer see boys wearing them to any extent in the 1900s.

Created: 2:33 AM 5/18/2010
Last updated: 10:09 PM 6/3/2018