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Hair bows are primarily associated with girls. There are countless images of girls wearing hair bows, especially around the turn-of-the 20th century and the early-20th century. Some girls had huge ones. A good example is the Keck girls, we think in the 1910s. Hair bows for American girls seem especially popular and particularly large in the early 20th century. Most were white, but we also notice some colored ones. While hair bows are strongly associated with girls, we also note many younger American boys wearing hair bows. It was not as common as in France, but we have found quite a number of images. In contrast to girls hair bows, they seem most common in the late-19th century, perhaps because long hair for boys was especially popular at this time. There were differences in styles for boys' and girls' hair bows. Boys' hair bows are generally much smaller and less prominant that girls' hair bows. Their placement is often quite different. It is not a perfect indicator, but is along with other factors such as facial charterisytics and clothes a very useful indicator. This is very helpful when trying to identify who is who in the many images where the children are not identified.
Hair bows are primarily associated with girls. While hair bows are strongly associated with girls, we also note many younger American boys wearing hair bows. Hair boys for boy do not seem as common as in France, but we have found quite a number of American images. We believe this reflects the huge number of America images as part of the very substantil American photographic record. In contrast to girls' hair bows, boys' hair bows seem most common in the late-19th century, perhaps because long hair for boys was especially popular at this time. There were differences in styles for boys' and girls' hair bows. Boys' hair bows are generally much smaller and less prominant that girls' hair bows. Their placement is often quite different. It is not a perfect indicator, but is along with other factors such as facial charteristics and clothes a very useful indicator. This is very helpful when trying to identify who is who in the many images where the children are not identified.
There are countless images of girls wearing hair bows, especially around the turn-of-the 20th century and the early-20th century. We have little information about the early-19th century, but with the advent of photography we have informtion bginning in th mid-19th century nd tht informtion only increases each decade with the expansion of the photographic industry. What we are not entirely sure about is if the studio portraits are a good reflection of actual prevalence. We are not sure if girls were more or less like to wear hair bows when they wento a photographic stydio. A good example of a studio portrait is the Keck girls, we think in the 1910s. A good indicator of actual prevalence is school photography which by the late-19th centuey was aell estanlished tradition. Hair bows for American girls seem especially popular and particularly large in the early-20th century. The peak of popularity and size was the 1910s. Most girls hair bows were white, but we also notice some colored ones, both light and dark colors. Unfortunately because of the black-and white photography of the day, we do not hbe any idea about the popular colors.
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