Figure 1.-- This unidentified boy with his baby brother wears a wide-brimmed sailor hat with a ailor suit. The cabinet card mount style suggests it was taken in the early-1900s. These really wide-brimmed hats were worn by younger boys. This boy looks to be about 4 years old. As with many of the new style mounts, the studio and location is not given.

We see both pre-school and primary age boys wearing broad-brimmed sailor hats. One of the most popular 19th century hat style were rounded crown hats, but these had fairly modest brims. After mid-century we begin to see boys wearing hats with increasingly wide brims. Broad-brimmed hats, especially the ones with extemly large brims, were commonly worn by younger boys. This would be mostly pre-school boys and the younger primary-school boys. The age at which boys wore these hats varied chronologically and with the style of the hats. Curiously the younger boys seemed to have worn the hats with the widest brims. We see these hats worn by boys to about 6-7 years of age. The boy here looks to be about 4 years old in the 1900s. And the peak time for these large brims were from the mid-1880s to the mid-1910s. After this we tend to see more modest width brims even for the younger boys. We see older boys wearing wide-brimmed sailor hats, but the the really wide brims the younger boys wore. These more modest brims were worn by boys up to about 10 years of age.

3 Years

We notice a 3½ year old Virginia boy, Dudley Mc Daniel Diggs, weraring a flat-top wide brimmedd hat. It was a dark hat with wide, long streamers. Dudley wore it with a kilt suit.

4 Years

The boy here looks to be about 4 years old in the 1900s (figure 1).

5 Years

6 Years

We see these hats worn by boys to about 6-7 years of age. And the peak time for these large brims were from the mid-1880s to the mid-1910s. After this we tend to see more modest width brims even for the younger boys. We see older boys wearing wide-brimmed sailor hats, but the the really wide brims the younger boys wore.

10 Years

There were more modest brims which might be worn by boys up to about 10 years of age.

Created: 8:15 AM 3/26/2015
Last updated: 6:36 PM 9/7/2019