Figure 1.--Here we see American boys, we think at a birthday partty in the 1950s. The boys wear suuts, mist with peaked dress caps. Notice one of the boys has pulled down ear flaps. To see the rest of the children, put your cursor on the image.

Usage of these peaked caps has varied over time. Useage is hard to assess in the 19th century. We see some younger boys weating them wiyh fabcy suits. They were not a common cap ytpe, vyr e do see them. At the tun if the 20th century they seem a kind of casual cap stylw, one of severa; stuyles worn. By the 1910s we see the dress peaked caps assunming the modern image and conventions. They became a style commonly worn by younger boys with suits. Sometimes they matched the suits. We see both pre-school and school age boys wearing them when dressing up for pecial occasions like church, sunday school, parties, weddings, and other special occasioins whre suits were worn. This gradually changed as more casual styles became inbcreasingly common for events that were previously dress up occassions. They were also adopted by some private schools as part of the school uniform They were not always worn with suits, but the great majority of images in the photographic record do show them bring worn with suits. They were particularly common with Eton suits, but we see some boys wearing them with lapel suits as well. These trends contiunued through the 1960s. By the 1990s they had become caps exclusively worn by pre-school boys with Eton suits. .

Created: 10:57 PM 3/17/2008
Last updated: 2:34 AM 12/14/2010