Figure 1.--Unfortunalely HBC does not have any information on this portrait. It appears to picture a boy in a skeleton suit (note the buttons) with an open ruffled collar. HBC believes it is Dutch and pictures a boy in the early 19th century.

HBC is rather a large site, probably the largest non-institutionsal site on the internet. Some readers have reported trouble finding information of intertest. I am sure the organization could be improved do so is another question. When ever you have a large site, there are going to be navigational problems for the first time user. Here are some suggestions and guidelines. In addition, we are happy to assist you with your reserch and efforts to navigate HBC.

Reserach on HBC

We have a few suggestions for those of you beginning your research or encountering problems navigating HBC:

1. HBC Home Page

Go to the HBC home page, virtually all of the major topics are linked to that page and thus accessible there. There is a link to the home page on virtually all HBC pages.

2. HBC Site Map

A few HBC readers have asked for a site map to help them navigate our site. We have begun to work on this. So few readers have expressed an interestthat we have not yet made a major in this undertaking. I any readers are especially interested in a detailed site map and would like to help with this, do let us know.

3. HBC Search Engine

HBC has become a rather large site. Thus a search engine has become essential. HBC has, however, had trouble finding a search engine that worked well. Hispeed, our Web host provided an Excite search engine that functioned reasonably for a few years, but was diabaled in December 2002 for some reason. We are now experimenting with other alternatives. Use the HBC search engine which will find pertinent pages for you automatically. We are currently using Freefind which is an advertising based service. Let us know how this system works for you.

4. HBC Index

HBC thinks an index would be an especially useful addition to HBC, but that will take some doing indeed. I've started the index, but it will be some time before it is finished.

5. HBC Glossaries

We are also building a glossary. At this time we have given more attemtion to the glossary than the index. Both will take some time to finish. The main glosary is in English, but we are also working on several foreign language glossaries.

6. HBC Question List

You may wish to consult the list of boys' fashions questions that HBC is currently working on. If information is not available on the question you wish to research, we can add it to the list of questions.

7. Net Searches

Search major web search engines and pertinent data bases for information on your favorite topics. We have for some time been using Google, but Yahoo it seems to us has improved in recent years.

8. Ask HBC

If all else fails ask the HBC webmaster. That will be helpful because if several queries are received on an organizational problem, that will alert HBC of problems that need to be corrected.

9. HBC Responses

HBC has archived some of the more interesting questions we have received along woth our responses which uou may find of interest. We have sections on general reader questions as well as those we have recieved from students working on school assignments

Search Conventions

We have attempted to structure HBC to make in easy for readers to find the information needed. We almost always spell out countries and other words rather than use abreviatins that search engines will not pict up on. Often readers are interested in country informstion. And this need is primarily met by looking in the country section. But there are many HBC sections outside the country sectiions which have counry informsation or images. Thus we write out the countryy name, like Germany , and never use Ger. An exception here is the United States, we do often use America, but normally both terms will appear in the text on any given page. We almost always use numbers when refrring to ages of children in the images and try to estimate ages when they are not available. This enables readers interested in the clothing worn by a crtain age groups to find the information. And we normally put the word "years" after the numeric age to differentiate age numbers from dates. We consistently use the American date conventions. This facilitates searches for readers interested in specific years or chronoloical periods. If readers have specific search requirements that are not being met, please inform HBC so we can adjust or adopt search conventions as approprisate.

HBC Research Assistance

We at HBC are pleased to assist in research efforts. There is no charge for this. We may not know the answer, but if we do not--we want to note it as a topic that needs to be persued. And we can help point readers to HBC pages that will assisst them. We caution that there is one requirement to resceive a respmse from HBC--basic civility. Incredably some HBC readers, mostly students, are upset that HBC can not provide all the information that they need for a school assignent. HBC has one response to rude requests--we trash them without responding.