Figure 1.-- Throughout the 19th century, headwear was very commonly worn by both children and adults. Here we see men wearing bowlers (derbies) and pork pie hats. An eldely woman wears a rather strange hat. Girls wear decorated hats and bonnets. We see more varied headwear styles for boys in the 1880s, including some modern styles liked the peaked cap which crossed the Atlantic from Britain. We also see different boys' hat styles. Notice the boy's wide brimmed sailor hat the lady is holding, probably because the brim was to wide for the boy to wear it in the portrait. Notice the boyin the upper right hand corner with a side-brimmed hat. We also see the boys' hat with more modest brims. We see the fancier hats tht the firls wore in addition to bonnets.

We note a range of varied headwear in America during the 1880s. Throughout the 19th century, headwear was very commonly worn by both children and adults. Here we see men wearing bowlers (derbies) and pork pie hats. An eldely woman wears a rather strange hat. Girls wear decorated hats and bonnets. We see more varied headwear styles for boys in the 1880s, including some modern styles liked the peaked cap which crossed the Atlantic from Britain. We also see boys beginning th win sailor caps. Sailor hats appeard earlier, bur we see sailor caps in the 80s. We note boys wearing some adult hat styles in the late 19th century. We see some boys wearing what we would describe as adult style hats like bowlers (derbies), homberg, but top hats were rarely worn. The bowler in the Massachusettes image here seems very popular. The boy on the main-19th century hat page with a derby hat is a good example. There is also a boy in this group wearing a bowler. He looks to be a younger teenager. The increasing prosperity of America may have been a factor. Most of the boys'hats are similar, narrow brimmed hats, but there are many variations. There were differences in the crown and brim, but basically the hats were quite similar. Girls wore both hats and bonnets. Bonnets seemmost common with younger girls, but we see school age girls wear them as well.

Created: 5:51 PM 5/15/2016
Last updated: 5:51 PM 5/15/2016