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United States -- school headwear types hats rounded crown hats
Regular U.S. School Headwear: Hats -- Cowboy/Western Hats
Figure 1.--This cabinent card is undayed and uidentified. It was claerly taken in the 1900s decade in a Western state. We see more cowboy hats than in mot other period school portraits. Note the many different styles of cow oy hats. Notice only one boy wears a cap at a time when only they were becoming astard back east. We have not idea ewhat the boy at the extreme right is wearing, it looks like a tam--but that is unlikely. Only one boy has a Fauntleroy collar. The noy next to him seems ti have long hair. Bothwear cowboy hats--something you earely see with Fauntleroy styling or long hair. Click on the image for a closer look.
The basic cowboy or Western hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat largely associate with the cowboys of the Old West but with atecedents of the Mexican sokmbrero wirn by Mexican racheros. It is still worn by many people in northern Mexicio and the Anerican Southwest. Thanks to Hollywood it is recognized around the world as part of Old West apparel. There are a variety of styles. The crown was done in many ways. And the brish was done in various widths. The modern Hollywood version does not seen very common in the sctul pohotograpohic record. It is sometimes called a Stetson, but Stetson was a hat manufacturer that made many styles of hats. The most fanous style is the ten gallon hat, but that is a styles that boys rarely wore. It was also not that common with adult men, except for working cowboys. What we do see more commonly was a scaled down version with a lower crown and more narrow brims. We do see quite a number of men and boys wearing this style in the Western States. Thnaks to Hollywood cowboy hats became very popular with boys (beginning 1910s). These were cheaper versions of the cowboy hat, a play hat. Manu boys and some girls had these hats, but they were not commonly worn to school. I am not sure why, probnly becsuse they were imporactical. I don't recall wearing caos or hts to school in yhe 1040s, except during the wsimter months or when it was raining. (Unlike Britain, American boys were normally not allowed umbrellas.) Today it is the Hollywood version of the cowboy hat that is worn in the West rather thn tyhe smller version more commomly worn in the late-19th an early-20th centuries.
