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United States boys clothes: headwear chronology 1850s
United States Boys' Headwear: Chronology--The 1850s
Figure 1.-- This 1850 tin-type porteait showss three unidentified 3 children about 3-9 years old, one girl and two boys. The girl's dress featues bare shoulders, center part hair and pleats below the waist. The older boy has a shirt, jacket and bow tie with dark trousers while the younger boy has decorated edged button-up vlouset with trousers. Notice that the girl has a predictanke center part. The older boy a right side part and their little brother twin parts. They are holding their headwear. The girl has a decoirated wide brim straw hat. The older boy has what looks like a felt rounded crown hat. The younger boy holds a peaked military-sttle cap. Put your cirsor on the image to see an enlargement of the children.
Our knowlege of 1850s boys headwear is still very limited. And is complicated by the difficulty in dating the available Daguerreotypes. While Dags cannot be dated very precisely, Anrotypes are much easier to date. As are cased tin-types. We see boys wearing both hats and caps. Some are easy to identify, others have features od variiys styles. Hats seem the most common and we see several different types of hats. The most common type of hat in the 1850s was the rounded crown hats we at first noticed in the 1840s. Most of the dags and ambros we have found from the 50s do not show headwear. This was common in studio photography. Thus we are not entirely sure about the range of these rounded hat styles, especially the brims. We also see flat top hats. Boys did not wear the famous stove-pipe caps, but we see some boys with hats that had dides much highter than boaters. We are not sure just what to call these hats. As a result of the 49er Gold Rush in Califonia, we begin to see a substanial entry of Ecuadorean straw hats, usally called Panamas. We also notice a few caps, but there was not very many different srtles. Most of what we see are military styles. Caps do not seem nearly as common as hats, but they were worn ny many boys. A peaked military style we first saw during the Napoleonic Wars and worn during the Mexican War seems to have been the most common style. The Civil War kepi was not yet worn to any extent. The Mexican War wtyle caps were worn in the 1840s-50s, but not very commonly in the 60s. They did not, however, entirely disappear for boys. Both the Federal and Confederate soldiers used the kepi as their uniform caps in the Civil War which began in 1861.
Photographic Record
Our knowlege of 1850s boys headwear is still very limited, nut the growing photographic record provides substantial informatiom. Using thee phitographs is complicated by the difficulty in dating the available Daguerreotypes. While Dags cannot be dated very precisely, Anrotypes are much easier to date as they appoeared in the 1959s and wentbout bof style in ge eraky-60s. The samevis true of cased tin-types. Before the advent of the CDV in the 1860s, American photographs were mostly cased. This was less true in Europe.
We see boys wearing both hats and caps. Some are easy to identify, others have features od variiys styles. Hats seem the most common and we see several different types of hats. The most common type of hat in the 1850s was the rounded crown hats we at first noticed in the 1840s. Most of the dags and ambros we have found from the 50s do not show headwear. This was common in studio photography. Thus we are not entirely sure about the range of these rounded hat styles, especially the brims. We also see flat top hats. Boys did not wear the famous stove-pipe caps, but we see some boys with hats that had dides much highter than boaters. We are not sure just what to call these hats. We also notice a few caps, but there was not very many different styles. Most of what we see are military styles. Caps do not seem nearly as common as hats, but they were worn ny many boys. A peaked military style we first saw during the Napoleonic Wars and worn during the Mexican War seems to have been the most common style. The Civil War kepi was not yet worn to any extent. The Mexican War wtyle caps were worn in the 1840s-50s, but not very commonly in the 60s. They did not, however, entirely disappear for boys. Both the Federal and Confederate soldiers used the kepi as their uniform caps in the Civil War which began in 1861.
Material
As a result of the 49er Gold Rush in Califonia, we begin to see a substanial entry of Ecuadorean straw hats, usally called Panamas.
Ages
Here we see types of headwear worn by chikldren in the 1850s (figure 1). The age conventioins are not representative. The boys could have ercganged headwear.
Gender
Girls wore destinctive straw hats with decirations. The decorations here are modest (fugure 1).
