English Boys' Headwear: Peaked Military Caps--Chronology


Figure 1.--This unidentified London boy looks to be about 8-years old. The appearance of the CDV in the 1860s gives us more information than ever before on fashion trends. He waes a cut-away jacket suit with long pants. Note the peaked military cap. The studio was C.T. Newcombe, 135 Fenchurch Street, London

We do not yet know the precise chronology of these peaked caps because our archive is fairly limited. We see these caps in the 1860s and 70 with the appearnce of the CDV. We believe, however, that the time span is much wider. We are not sure when boys began wearing them. We suspect about the 1820s, although the 1810s is possible because it was a Napoleonic war style. This is a little hard to track because photography was not yet invented. These caps seem a well established style at mid-century. This is difficult to assess with precision. Photography was invented--the Daguerrotype (1839). But we have found very few Englis Dags (1840s-50s) and Ambros (1855-60). We do notice boys wearing them in the 1860s. The appearance of the CDV makes large numbers of photographs avialble for the first time (1860s). The boy here is a good example. These milkitary-style peajed cap are also found in the 1870s, nut appear to begin declining in popularity. We are still assessing decade popularity trends.







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Created: 7:46 AM 3/15/2014
Last updated: 7:46 AM 3/15/2014