Figure 1.--This unidentified boy looks to be about 15 years old, pehaps even 16 years. Boys at the time look yonger than modern boys. The cabinet card portrait was taken in St. Louis, Missori during 1891. We suspect that the boy came into St. Louis with his family from their farm. Both the hat and the plain suit, not even a necktie, suggest this. We are reminded of the 'Oklahoma!' song, 'Everything's up to date in Kansis City. The Suddio was O. Strauss in St. Louis.

We still still these these rounded-crown hats being worn in the 1890s. The 1890s is, however, the first decade in which we see relly large numbers of caps being worn. We see caps throughout the 19th century. Without photography we can not assess relative popularity of caps and hats. Hats were definited more common in the 18th century, but we are not sure about the early-19th century. The photographic record for the rest of the century clearly shows that hats were the dominnt headwear for boys, at least intil the 1890s. Suddenlywe see more caps, especially in the second half of the decade. There wa no one single cap style. We see quite a few different styles. The fominant hat style, however, continued to be the rounded crown hat. And the differences between rural and urban areas which were observable earlier seem particularly pronounced by the 1890s. We see these hats much less commonly in urban areas, but they are still commonly worn in rural areas. Here studio photography is less helpful than desirable. tudio photographers generally indicate the location that they were taken, bit not where the subjects lived. Farmers and other rural residents might occassionally come into town and have portraits taken there. Here school photography is particularly useful in assessing democraphic trends like riral and urban fashion trends. For whatever reasons, we see fewer caps in rural areas. Cold weather caps may be an exception. Unfortunately most shool photography was taken during the warm weather months in rural areas.

Created: 1:35 AM 10/11/2017
Last updated: 1:35 AM 10/11/2017