Figure 1.--This American boy is Leo Herbert. The photograph is undated, but we estimate about 1910-15. It was taken in Trinton, Mossurri. The image is unusual in that most images of boys wearing hairbows show them in fancy outfits like Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. This is on of the few images we hav seen of a boy wearing riglets and curls with overalls. It is often notable because Leo has such a large hair bow. Image courtesy of the RG collection. |
Most of the images of boys wearing hairbows show them in fancy, formal outfits. This leads us to the conclusion that they were used as part of dressy outfits for special ocassion and not part of day to day wear. We notice far fewer snap shots of boys in casual outfits playing around their house. This may in part be due to the fact that snap shots only begun appearing in large numbers around 1900 with the invention of the Kodak Brownie. We do note a few images of boys wearing hair bows when dresses in casaual clothing.
We have virtually no written information about the conventions for boys wearng hair bows. An analysis of the clothes they were wearing, however, provides some clues.
Most of the images of boys wearing hairbows show them in fancy, formal outfits. This leads us to the conclusion that they were used as part of dressy outfits for special ocassion and not part of day to day wear.
We notice far fewer snap shots of boys in casual outfits playing around their house. Here a boy wars overalls. These may in fact be Levi Strauss Koveralls. If these are Loveralls, the photograph would have been taken in 1912 or sometimes after that. Perhaps Leo's mother considered these Loveralls the height of fashion. Perhaps she was keeping him clean for an event later in the day and Leo wanted to be photographed in his new Koveralls. Unfortuntely we just do not know.
This may in part be due to the fact that snap shots only begun appearing in large numbers around 1900 with the invention of the Kodak Brownie. We do note a few images of boys wearing hair bows when dresses in casaual clothing. The fact that the Browin only became available in 1900 means that we have very few images from the late 19th century when it was probably more common to wear hair bows. For some reason virtally no painted portrait shows boys wearing hairbows.
We know very little about Leo Herbert, except the one phothograph we have of him. It is undated, but we estimate that it was taken about 1910. We know it was taken in Trinton, Mossurri. The photograph suggests that his mother had him study the piano. The most interesting aspect of the portrait is the juktaposition of the rightlet curls and hair bow with the informal overalls. The images rather leads one to speculate about how Leo was dressed when not wearing his overalls. We assume that the overalls were used as play clothes around the home. We wonder if they might be worn instead of a smock. It rather leads one to wonder about the mother's fashion sence. One factor is that overalls for a child was a new fashon. Thus it may be that the mother her had not quite worked out the proper conventions for the overlls. Or perhaps coming from a farming community, overalls were acceptable. I'm not sure just where Trinton, Mossurri, but it certainly was not a large city. Note that added to the ringlets was a rather large whote hair bow. Most images that we have seen of boys with harbows had smaller bows. He also has a plaid collar bow.
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