Figure 1.--This American boy was photographed by Prior Bros. in Providence, Rhode Island. The unidentified boy looks to be about 9-10 years old. He ears a collar-buttoning knee pants suit with a wide white collar. The soft fabric hat he is wearin looks to match his suit. We are unsure about the color. The portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken about 1880.

We note circular fabric hats with unmolded round croiwns and fold up brims in the late-19th century from about the 1870s-90s. The brim could be folded down, but we never see the caps worn that way. We do not know what these hats were called. Unfortunately in period catalogs, headwear styklesre often not identified. It was a popular style and we We see quite a few American boys wearing them. It is a little difficult to tell from the available portraits, but quite a number of the photographs look like they msatched the suits. It was perhaps the most common 19th century style of matching headwear. There were other headwea styles that were more common, but they were not matching styles. These were sidt caps that could be made from a variety of suiting material. The hats were worn by school-age boys, but usually not teenagers.

Created: 8:48 PM 10/3/2009
Last updated: 8:48 PM 10/3/2009