Figure 1.--Chicago girl Barbara Bisch here was 10 years old and wears a wide brimmed hat that seems to match her overcoat with velvet trim. This has rather an upper-class look to us today, but that was apparntly not the case im 1945 when the photograph was taken. Barbara attended a public school. Infact she even got into a fight at school. The press caption read, 'Critically Injured in Child Fight: Barbara Bisch, 10, who is in serious condition in Chicago Southside Hospital with head injuries rportedly inflicted by classmates in three fights near school. Conflict rportedly started over argument at school drinking fountain.'

Age was less of a factor with girls headwear than was the case for boys headwear. We see much wideer age ranges for girls' headwear than was the case for boys' headwear. We often see teenage girls wearing many of the same styles styles as little girls. This includes hats and tams. It is also true of caps, although girls did not wear caps as commonly as boys. The primary hat worn by girls was the ronded crown hat with wide brims. We see girls wearing them into the 1960s. The age conventions for the different types and styles of headwear varied over time along with popularity. Here we see a 10-year old grade school girl wearing a widebrimmed hat in 1945 (figure 1).

Created: 6:12 PM 4/22/2014
Last updated: 6:12 PM 4/22/2014