Figure 1.--Gere we see an unidentified American boy off to school in the morning his aviator cap. He looks to be about n9 years old and lives in a leafy suburb. Notice the two track driveway. This all suggests he came from a middle-class family in comfortable circumstamnces. The snapshot is undated, but looks like it was taken about 1930. He is wearing a heavy coat with short pants and knees socks, probably in the fall.

There are some headwear styles that are are strongly associated with certain countries. Most caps and hats were widely worn in Europe and North America. A few have country asociations such as berets (France), Schirmmützen (Germany), and school caps (England). This is not to sau the peaked cap which became the school cap or the beret was not worn in other countries, but the became iconinic English and French garments. No country has, however, had so many headwear styles (mostly caps) that are so strongly many cap styles that are so strongly associated with than America. We note some styles that seem uniquely American Cowboy hats were popular with boys, but more as a novelty or play cap. Coon-skin caps thanks to Davy Crockett made a brief appearane in the 1950s. Some headwear had mixed usages. The aviator caps or hemets were novelty styles, but they were very warm winter caps as well. Of course the American cap that has had the greates impact around the world is the baseball cap. It wa a uniquely American style for decades. Only in the 1980s do we see it making inroads around the wotld. We first noted this in Britain when we saw of all people, British coal miners in their struugle against Prime-Minister Thatcher wearing baseball caps (1980s). It took a little longer for British children to begin weaing them.

Created: 2:02 PM 3/22/2019
Last updated: 2:02 PM 3/22/2019