Figure 1.-- Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 1870s. The children here look to be about 8-10 years of age. This boy wears an upturned wide-brimmed hat. The brim is modest compared to the ones we see later in the century. It is a sailor hat with wide streamers. Mother has chosen a dark straw hat to match his suit. He also wears a velvet suit with piping and an Eton collar. I'm not sure how to describe the girl's hat. She wears a dress with bodice runching and a square lace collar. There is also a wide sash-like waisline. She wears pantalettes. This CDV portrait was taken in 1878. The studio was Wolstenholme in Blackpool.

We do not yet have much information on English 1870s headwear, but we are gradually expnding our archive. One problem is that often headwear was not included in the studio portraits. This seems more true of CDVs than cabinet cards, presumably because of the smaller image area. And CDVs were the dominant format in Englnd during the 70s. Unlike America, we do not see many of the larger-format cabinet cards during this decade. Thus are archive is still limited and we have a rather small sample size, specially dated images. This has forced us to use images in which we estimate the date. We do this with some trepedation, but invite readers to comment if they believe we are wrong about the date. We can usually get the decade right, but not always and we are more accurate with American than European images. Thanks to internet publishing, we can easily correct the date and move it into the right decade. Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 70s. We see some boys wearing boater like hats. This would be mostly boys from well-to do families. We begin to see sailor hats more commonly in the 70s. The Blackpool boy here in 1878 is a good example. This again was fgor boys from damilies in comfortable circumstances. We see some caps. Peaked caps and sailor caps for the younger boys were worn, but hats seem the primarty headwear type at least for families in comfortable circumstabces. We are less sure about working-class boys. We believe the teenager wearing what looks rather like a Coachman's hat on the previous page dates to the 1870s. It had highsides, but not as high as a top hat.

Assessment Problem

We do not yet have much information on English 1870s headwear, but we are gradually expnding our archive. One problem is that often headwear was not included in the studio portraits. This seems more true of CDVs than cabinet cards, presumably because of the smaller image area. And CDVs were the dominant format in Englnd during the 70s. Unlike America, we do not see many of the larger-format cabinet cards during this decade. Thus are archive is still limited and we have a rather small sample size, specially dated images. This has forced us to use images in which we estimate the date. We do this with some trepedation, but invite readers to comment if they believe we are wrong about the date. We can usually get the decade right, but not always and we are more accurate with American than European images. Thanks to internet publishing, we can easily correct the date and move it into the right decade.

Types

We see English boys wearing both hats and caps in the 1870s. Hats continue to dominate boys headwear in the 70s. There were several different styles. Some are the juvenile styles we see associate boys. But other were hat like bowlers that we associate more with adult men. We see some boys wearing boater like hats. This would be mostly boys from well-to do families. We begin to see sailor hats more commonly in the 70s. The Blackpool boy here in 1878 is a good example. This again was for boys from families in comfortable circumstances. We see some caps. Peaked caps and sailor caps for the younger boys were worn, but hats seem the primarty headwear type at least for families in comfortable circumstabces. We believe the teenager wearing what looks rather like a Coachman's hat on the previous page dates to the 1870s. It had highsides, but not as high as a top hat.

Social Class

Virtually all the images we have from the 1870s are stuudio portait. This strongly influences the photographic record towaed the well-to-do or at least the working-class in comfortable citcucstances. We are less sure about the general working class. Many were not able to afford studio portraits or at least not very many. By this time American workers were better paid than British workers and British workers were the best paid in Europe.

Created: 2:27 PM 3/20/2015
Last updated: 3:38 PM 11/11/2017