Figure 1.--This AZO postcard-backed snapshot shows an unidentified boy wearing a classic wide-brimmed sailor hat. The AZO three triangles up stamp box and the clothes, especially the knickers, suggest the 1910s to us. A reader points out, "Notice that the boy wears the hat with a chin strap. It is the white band visible on the boy's left side." This is something you do not see in portraits because the chin strap is not needed indoors.

After the turn of the 20th century, caps became increasingly popular and we see fewer hats. And we we see the sailor hats still worn increasingly being worn with sailor suits. The classic style wide-brimmed sailor hats while declining in popularity were still being worn in the 1900s. We note a change in hat styles during the 1910s. The overall popularity of sailor hats continued to decline in the 1910s. And we see new styles. We see boys wearing hats with with turned downed brims. Here either parts of the brim or the whole brim was turned down. We note these hats with various crowns, but flst crowns were prevalent. . We note a number of different styles. Some of the crowns were the same as the traditional sailor hats. Some hat flat crowns shaped rather like fedoras. We only see this style in the very late-1900s or 1910s. We see fewer boys wearing the classic style, but they did not totally disappear. After World War I in the 1920s we no longer see sailor hats to any extent. Some boys may have worn the hats with turned down brims, but we rarely see them after the very early-1920s.

Created: 9:36 PM 6/12/2009
Last updated: 4:19 AM 6/25/2010