Figure 1.--This is John Wiedenmayer in 1912. His father who had passed away was a wealthy New Jersey brewer. He wears a tunic suit with a turned down wide-brimmed hat, a popular style in the 1910s. The tunic suit was aajor style also worn by middle-class boys. These turned down hats were more of an upper class style. wgich was more prevalent in Europe.

Traditional wide-brimmed hats were done in many styles. The principal variants included brim widths and crown styles. The width of the brims varied as well as the treatments of the brim edges. The other major feature was the crowns. We see both flat and rounded crown hats. We note rounded crown hats commonly worn in the 19th century. It was a very common style. The degree of crown rounding varied quite a bit. The rounding varied considerably. Most were done with moderate width brims. We begin see much wider-brim hats (1880s). The rounded crowns seem most common in the late-19th century. The boy on th previous page the 1880s has a flat crown. We begin to see more flat crowns in the 1890s. Hat bands also varied in both width and color. Some wide-brimmd hats had bows of vatious sizes done with the hat band. Other of these hats were done with streamers of various widths and legths. Then suddenly we see these hats with one side of the brimm turned up (1910s). This was something we never saw in the 19th century. We note brims that were flat, like the boy on the previou page who is holding one that were slightly rolled up at the outer edges. But suddenly we see hats that were sharply turned down on one style in a kind of rogish twist--unusual for upper-c;ass styles. John Wiedenmayer here is wearing a good example in 1912. We think that this was mostly a boy's style. We see the same style in Eyrope. It is a style strongly associated with the 1910s, but it was the end of the wide-brimmed sailor hat as a popular style.

The Brim

The width of the brims varied as well as the treatments of the brim edges. Most were done with moderate width brims. We begin see much wider-brim hats (1880s). Then suddenly we see these hats with one side of the brimm turned up (1910s). This was something we never saw in the 19th century. We note brims that were flat, like the boy on the previou page who is holding one that were slightly rolled up at the outer edges. But suddenly we see hats that were sharply turned down on one style in a kind of rogish twist--unusual for upper-class styles. John Wiedenmayer here is wearing a good example in 1912. We think that this was mostly a boy's style. We see the same style in Eyrope. It is a style strongly associated with the 1910s, but it was the end of the wide-brimmed sailor hat as a popular style.

The Crown

The other major feature was the crowns. We see both flat and rounded crown hats. We note rounded crown hats commonly worn in the 19th century. It was a very common style. The degree of crown rounding varied quite a bit. The rounding varied considerably. The rounded crowns seem most common in the late-19th century. The boy on the previous page the 1880s has a flat crown. We begin to see more flat crowns in the 1890s. A good example is 3½ year old Virginia boy, Dudley McDaniel Diggs, with a flat-top wide brimmed hat in 1890.

Other Elements

Hats had other minor element. They included hat bands, bows, streamers, anf vhin straps. The most important of these elements awere hat bands. Almost all hats had hat bands, they were very common. Hat bands varied in both width and color. Some wide-brimmd hats had bows of vatious sizes done with the hat band. Other of these hats were done with streamers of various widths and legths. They were far more common than suggest by studio photography. They do not show up in the 19th studio photography when these hats were the most common. This is because the streamers hung at the back and most porttaits were frontal shots. Even so we believe they were very common. Not all wide-brimmed had them, but thy were very common. Another element is chin strsps. They also do not show up in many studio portaits even though most wide brimmed hats had them. This is if course because thewind was not blowing inside the studio. A good example of a boy wearing a wide-brimmed hat is an unidentififed Tennessee boy in 1907.

Created: 6:45 AM 6/18/2015
Last updated: 2:21 PM 11/18/2019