Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows all the boys wearing flat caps. The children look to be about 4-11 years old. Perhaps thy are visuting grand =mother. One boybhad not snpped his peak to the rest of the cap like his brother. Perhaps he liked the look. Their little sisters wear a stocking cap and a hooded jacket. The snapshot is undated. We believe it was taken in the 1910s, but the early-20s is possible.

It was in the 1910s that the basic headwear for boys shifted from hats to caps. We still see some of the large hats for younger boys. This included wide brimmed hats, often with some of the brim slanted down. We also see younger boys wearing sailor caps. we countinue to see children wearing stocking caps during the winter. Both boys and girls wore stocking caps. Theu had many advanyages, they were cheap, could be colorful, were warm, and stayed on he head even on windy days. The big shift we see is the flat cap suddenly becoming the headwear for school age boys. The flat cap was a versitile garment for this age group, it could be worn for play, school, and dress ocassions--all the major occassions for boys. We see quite a range of caps and hats in the 1900s. This changed in the 1910s, suddenly the flat cap predominated in the huge quantity of family snapshots that and now made up perdominate portion of the maasive photographic record. We see this with little boys just beginning at school to older teenagers finishing highschool. For that matter they were commn in college as well. Basically there were no age conventions for flat caps except pre-school boys who mothers thought should notvyet wear a school-age style. The other exception is adult men who wanted a more establidhed, mature look. Flat caps were not the only cap style boys wore, but it certainly dominated the decade.

Created: 5:30 PM 5/31/2016
Last updated: 5:30 PM 5/31/2016