Ladies in Hats

What catches your attention first in this woman's photograph? Her violin or her hat? Maybe it is her clear eyed gaze at the camera? Perhaps the patterned embroidery on her dress? Did you spot her wedding ring? For me it was the hat. In my photo collection there are dozens of photographs of individual female violinists and band musicians. With the exception of women wearing uniform band caps, this photograph is the only lady in a hat. It makes her special.

The photographer was The Baker Studio of Vermillion, South Dakota. I have been unable to find any records for this photographer, but the woman's pose in front of a painted stairway is typical of the 1890s. Her puffed shoulders are very similar to fashion styles I've seen on other dated photos from 1891-1895. South Dakota became a state in November 1889 so the photo is certainly after that year. Vermillion is almost, but not quite, on the Missouri River in the southeast corner of the state near Sioux City, Iowa, so it was a community easily accessible to traveling photographers by either rail or riverboat.

I imagine her dress might actually be red or scarlet and not the somber black shown in her sepia toned photograph. Her hat has a texture that looks like velvet to me with a satin bow rather than a feather. Her long dress hides what I expect were sensible shoes. Does the hat indicate a traveler? Was she a professional musician who toured the "opera houses" of America's wild west? I'm afraid there are not enough clues to learn her identity. But it is a fine photo from a place that not many years before was a wilderness on the Great American Prairie. 

I keep a special category on my blog labeled hats, and there are now 101 posts with that tag, which makes it by far the largest topic on this supposedly musical blog. Recently I acquired some non-musician cabinet photographs of elegant ladies in hats from this same decade. This woman has a splendid hat with feathers, jewels, and bows. It accentuates the curve of the high collar and puffed shoulder of her winter weight coat. I looks like a wool fabric to me but perhaps it is a type of fur. Unfortunately she posed for a photographer that left no mark so we can never know where she is from. Perhaps I should add spectacles as a tag, as she looks very professional with her Pince-nez glasses (see comments).

Bloomington, IL Pantagraph
Sept 10, 1896

This young woman was also photographed by an unknown photographer. Her light colored winter jacket is surely made of lamb or sheep skin. Her hat has several feathers artfully arranged on a brimmed white hat. Her right hand holds a pair of fine leather gloves. Is she also dressed for travel?

Chicago, IL Daily Tribune
September 23, 1897

This last duo of young ladies seem dressed for spring rather than fall. They wear differently styled hats, one with a bristle and rosette, and the other a straw hat with a feather and bow. The girl on the left also has Pince-nez spectacles. The photographer is Park of Lambertville, New Jersey, just up the river from Trenton.

Chicago, IL Inter Ocean
October 6, 1895

Open any newspaper of this last decade of the 19th century to the women's section and you will discover more varieties in feminine hats than any fashion accessory found in today's modern clothing. I am constantly amazed at how a hat could indicate class, trade, prosperity, season, region, ethnicity, and nationality, as well as taste too. The millinery code is no longer part of common cultural conversation, so don't expect me to explain it. But these women certainly understood it.
  

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone believes in recycling.