Figure 1.-- This portrait, probably taken around 1890, shows a man holding a boy on a bicycle. The man was Charlie Weeks. The boy was his nephew, but we do not know his name. They were from Whitewater, Wisconsin. The boy wears a tam with a Fauntleroy kilt suit. A reader asks how old the boy is. We would guess 3-4 years old.

There was no one single outfit with which tams were associated. We see boys wearing tams with a variety of different outfits. The tams that boys wore were generally with kilt suits or Fauntleroy suits. We see more boys wearing tams with these outfits than any other outfit. Boys dressed in kilt suits wore a range of different headwear, but tams were an important one of them. A good example is the boy wearing a Fauntleroy ilt suit here (figure 1). Another example is a San Jose boy about 1905. Tams were not the principal headwear for either outfit, but they were worn. We note Percy Brown who has just been breeched wearing a tam with his new sailor suit in 1891. Another example is an unidentified boy wearing a Fauntleroy suit about 1890. Tams were not commonly worn with sailor suits, but this boy just got his sailor suit. The sailor suit was so commonly worn that we see boys wearing a range of caps with it besides just sailor caps. We also note a few portraits taken in the early 20th century. The unidentified boy in the portrait on the prevuious page is an example.

Created: 1:50 AM 5/17/2008
Last updated: 5:41 AM 5/20/2008