Figure 1.--Caps and haps were widely worn in both the 19th and 20th centuries, Hats dominated in the 19th century and caps became the dominant type in the 20th century. A variety of factors affected the choice of headwear, including age, gender and social class. Here we see boys working at the Pelzer Manufacturing Compsny in South Carolina during 1912. Most of the younger boys wear caps, but a few boys have hats. Notice that every boy has some kind of headwear. Sporce: Lewis Hine.

There are two basic types of headwear worn in America, caps and hats. The basic differences is that hats have brims all arounf the crown. Caps only have bills/peaks, a partial brim at the front. Actually we have simplified the actual diversity of headwear by grouping a number of headwear types in the cap section thast are not really caps, such as berets and stockuing caps, essentially creating a non-hat category. We do this because several styles like stocking caps are called caps even though they are not true caps. Both caps and hats are made in many different styles giving the impression of more than two different types. The popularity of both types have varied significantly over time. There are variations in gender and age conventions as to wether hats or caps are worn. Utility and seasonality are other factors in determining what boys wear.

Hats

We note American boys wearing many different styles of caps and hats. The basic difference is the brim. A hat has a full brim while a cap has only a partial brim. We do not have much information on 18th century styles, but we have a good bit of information about 19th and 20th century styles. We notice boys wearing sailor hats, but no other hat style was especially common for boys. Several hat styles were worn over time. Some boys wore rather adult styles like bowlers while others wore the more juvenile sailor hats. No hat style was nearly as common as the different cap styles. Hats seem some what more common for upper class families, but this destinction does not seem as prominant as is the case for adults. American boys wore the same hat styles as worn in Europe. The one destinctive style was the cowboy hat.

Caps

Caps were more common for boys than hats, but we see boys wearing both. Caps seem more a 19th than an 18th century style. We do not know of any 18th century caps, butt we see many in the 19th and 20th centuries. There were also a range of other headwear such as berets, hetmets, and knit caps. These items are commonly referred to as caps as well even though they did not have brims. we have not noted any new styles in the 21st century. Some cap styles like sailor caps were especially important. There were several different sailor styles. Flat caps and and baseball caps were two other important stylesparticularly common for boys. There were several other styles that were also worn to varying degrees as well. There were also fad styles like coon-skin caps.

Created: 5:06 AM 8/30/2010
Last updated: 5:06 AM 8/30/2010