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Vintage Photos of Kids in Hats

Photo is of Willie and Tad Lincoln, with Mary's first cousin, Lockwood Todd, in Mathew Brady's studio in 1861.
(Not mine)

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Edward

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Sometimes they wear them better than we do.

Elvis Presley

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Oh, that's great! I've seen other photos of Elvis at about six, but never one this young. I don't think I'd have recognised him here had I not known, but he had that moody, 'looking pat the camera' , look down pat at a very young age it seems!


These kids are at Eton College in England (the most elite of fee-paying 'public schools' (public school having quite a different meaning here in the UK than in the US).
Be interesting to know the year, though AFAIK, the so-called "um freezer" jacket depicted here that was part of the uniform of the junior boys (older boys wore a full-length morning coat) disappeared in 1964, so that puts a latest possible date on it. Prior to that the uniform hadn't much changed in a century. I don't believe hats are part of it any longer, however, mirroring the decline of the hat in menswear more generally in the UK since the 30s.


"Jose Arturo Navarro and “Sweetie” pause outside the San Antonio Light Building on East Travis Street, 1925."

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I'm not sure exactly why, but with pets moreso than humans, seeing them in old pictures like this and knowing them to be long passed somehow catches my imagination all the more. Maybe it's because it's not that long since my own grandparents were around (we lost the last of them in 2019) who could tell us about the war and as far back as the 30s, whereas for our shorter-lived species friends, "living memory" is so much less of a gap from start to finish. Maybe also because (at least prior to the social media age), pets were as a rule much less photographed than humans too?


Penn Station NYC 1940’
The look on this handsome young lads face is priceless.
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Heh. Looks like he's just realised he left something in that pocket and it's melted... Sharp suit, though. I'd buy that in my size all day long.

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A photograph of Steve McQueen and a young admirer,

monochrome, depicting a smiling McQueen with 6-year old fan Marietta 'Josh' Stephens wearing McQueen's stetson hat, on location between takes of the film 'Nevada Smith', released 1966, dated '10/23/65' to reverse, 8 x 10ins.

Love this photo. A very different vibe from the usual shots I've seen of McQueen. Looks so relaxed and unguarded here - and, weirdly, not facially entirely unlike Stephen Merchant.

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So, I guess this settles it--wearing a hat can make a person lose his/her hair. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ha! My mother said for years "Don't wear a hat indoors, you'll go bald" - and I remember her being less than keen when we wore ballcaps in the Summer even outside, back in the 80s - somehow she got it into her head we'd be better with those card-dealer sun visors (which were popular with players of lawn bowls, at which my paternal grandparents were both club champions at a time). Something to do with letting our hair breathe....

Course, I *did* go bald young, but that's much more common for Generation X and in academia especially in our generation...
 

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