Figure 1.--Here we see an undated tin-type with a group of girls and women of all ages. They are all wearing dresses. The older women are wearing blouses and skirts and the girls wearing dresses. As a result of the clothing we re fairly comfortable about dting it to the 1890s. Notice how some of the boters are decorated.

The boater was primarily a man's hat style, but girls and women did wear them. This was the case in america and other countries. We do not know to what exten there were coubtry differences yet. Women and girls often wore their boaters with hatpins to keep them in place. In fact we see quite a few girls and women wearing them in the photgraphic record. We are not sure about the chronology. We first women a girls wearing them in what we think are the 1890s, but we these are images for which we are just estimating the date. We believe that they were primarily worn earlier, but do not yet the photograohic evidence to substantiate it. They seem most common with younger women, but we see girls and older women wearing them as well. Some girls' schools even adopted them as part of the school uniform. As with the boaters worn by men and boys, we see various variations in the style of the boaters. Sometimes girls and women even decorated them, not as elaborately as other styles but we do see decorations.

Created: 6:29 PM 8/4/2016
Last updated: 6:29 PM 8/4/2016