Figure 1.--This boy wears a little colored bow at the side of his sailor cap. |
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American boys wore a flouncy, usually white soft cap. Different caps varied significantly in size and flouciness. Some may gave side bows or streamers. I believe this style was most common at the turn if the 20th century and the 1900s. This style may have been inspired by French sailor caps, although I am not sure of the time line of the French uniforms. We note boys wearing these soft sailor caps both with sailor suits and tunic suits as well as other outfits like fancy blouses.
We believe this style was most common at the turn-of-the 20th century and the 1900s, but this requires a further assessment. We continue to archive examples. Many are not dated, so we have to assess the dates. Based on our assessment, we mostly see that they appear at are just after the turn-of-the century. So far most of the examples we have found are from the 1900s and 10s. We are not yet sure about the 1890s, but we think that it is likely that there were some. We do see some in the 1920s, mostly the early-20s. A good example is Ellis Gray Holden in 1908. We see sailor caps before the turn-of-the century, but mostly the hard saucer style which was an actual unifiorm style.
American boys wore a flouncy, usually white soft cap. Different caps varied significantly in size and flouciness. A dark head band on the cap often provided the name og a vessel. Some may gave side bows or streamers. Unlike wide brimmed straw hats, they were not worn with chin straps.
We have noted this type of cap being worn by American boys. We think it was mostly an American style, but we do see it being worn to a limited extent in a few other countries. We also note in in Canada, Englans and iother countries. HBC is less sure This style may have been inspired by French sailor caps, although I am not sure of the timeas to how popular it was in France. French boys do appaer to have worn it in line with French uniforms.
HBC believes wore this style through about age 10, but this requires more investigation. We note Ellis Gray Holden wearing a soft sailor cap at age 3 years.
Most of the caps were either white or blue. While we believe that most of the caps were white or blue, sailor suits came in many colors and some of the caps may have been done in some of these colors. It is difficult to tell because of the blasck and white photography of the day. Caps were usually brought separately from the suits so we do not think these other colors were very common.
Most of the children weaing these caps are boys. They were, jowever, also worn by girls. A good example is Molly and Betty Blewitt in England about 1920.
These caps cae with cap bands or tallies. These were meant for the names of ships. For children they also appeared with country or sevice names.
We note boys wearing these soft sailor caps both with sailor suits and tunic suits. A good example of worn with a tunic suit was Ellis Gray Holden in 1908.
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