What attracts you to an image? A face. A dress. The details of a collar. The pose? Or is it the attitude? A photograph can take you on a journey into the past, or make your present more interesting.
What do you see? Take a few minutes look at the details: the composition, the mood, the light, the tiny details.
She will always be here as long as her image looks you in the eye and tells you, “I’m so glad you could join me.”
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
As We Were, a look into 19th Century photography, fashion, and culture. The idea came from my box of ghosts, or that is the many boxes I have full of 19th Century photos that need to be shared.
My regular readers will recognize some of the images, but there are many many many more that haven’t been seen for a long time.
Each 1st and 4th Wednesday I’ll share my photos, along with stories, thoughts on fashion like how bustles and hoop skirts really work, society, and other related subjects.
Ready for adventure in the 1850’s. Don’t forget to wear the correct hat for the occasion. Half Plate Daguerreotype
One fashion trend I miss are men with hats. I don’t mean baseball caps, worn front, back, or sideways. I am also not talking about stocking hats, or cowboy hats, which also serve their own purpose, or hide bed head, or whatever.
I’m talking about real hats. Why hats? Hats are fun. Hats are stylish. Hats protect male heads with thinning hair. Hats keep one both cold and warm. Plus hats just look great.
An attractive family with fabulous hats. Tintype. 1890’s
I’m also talking about old photos and the 19th Century men in these photos. They knew how to wear hats. When they were not wearing the hats they were still showing them off. Mind you, top hats are extremely cool. Our friend Randolpho often wears an extremely tall top hat, but this post is about the other hats. Top hats will be featured in a future post.
This week I’m featuring a small collection of images with stylish men in the 1860’s – 1880’s and their hats. Enjoy.
Of course you could always let your girlfriend wear your hat. Tintype. 1880’s.
1880’s Summer Style. A nice straw hat for a stroll out with your female companion. Back then straw hats were not just for yard work or super casual wear. This was real style. Tintype.
A couple of dapper dudes. Tintype. 1890’s
Straw and Silk
Well dressed couple. His hat is a light color but it looks to be cloth rather than summer straw. No doubt it was from one of the finest hat makers. Considering it is usually in the 90’s or 100’s in Marysville in July their clothing is, well interesting. Sanders & Stinson Photographers, July 9th 1864 Marysville, California. CDV
Dapper young man with a fine looking summer hat and cane. Notice the striped trousers and patterned vest peaking out from the jacket. 1860’s. Photographed by Issacs. Lachman. Philadelphia. CDV
I want a guy with a straw hat and a long jacket. Yes, that was a take on the Cake song. You’re welcome. 1860’s. Photographed by Black & Batchelder, Boston. CDV
Uncle Ed has a fine cloth hat. It isn’t quite a top hat but extremely handsome. Photographer Randall, Fishers Block Detroit Michigan, 1870’s. CDV
J.C. Huten in a bowler hat and friend. 1880’s. W. Hall, Photographer, Brighton, England. CDV
Cute dogs never go out of style. This dog is seriously cute.
Young man with a beautiful hat to go with his long jacket. He is looking grown up with a bit of a beard over his handsome young baby face. 1864. Carte De Vista by Charles G. Crane, Philadelphia. Tax Stamped.
I couldn’t leave you today without a formal top hat. This looks like it might be fur. This is The Irish Tenor Chauncey Olcott with Rosemary Theby. Cabinet Card, Donovan, New York.
This post has been part of the series As We Were, a look into 19th Century photography, fashion, and culture.
On the 1st and 4th Wednesday of each month I’ll ramble share my photos, along with stories, thoughts on fashion like how bustles and hoop skirts really work, society, and other related subjects. For the complete list CLICK HERE.
All images are from the collection of and property of Juliette Kings / Marla Todd. Please ask for permission before reproducing. Thank you.
One more thing…
For Vampire Maman fans who came here for Vampires here is a picture of Peter Cushing in a hat.
Time travelers of all kinds will tell you that it is important to get the details correct. No detail could be more important than having the right hat.
1870’s and 1880’s
After the 1860’s women’s dresses went from large hoopskirts to more of a natural form. I use the word natural loosely, but take a look at the images and you’ll see what I mean. Hats went from bonnets to amazing works of art. There was something to fit every taste. As the dresses in the 80’s became more extreme so did the hats.
Any good mother would know to start their children off early with stylish hats. Of course they had a dog.
Of course you could always borrow your boyfriend’s hat.
Fashionable friends in the 1880’s with fabulous hats. Do you think they planned this or just happened to show up wearing these delightful creations?
Notice the feathers. Now imagine the wild bright colors these hats were. There was nothing drab about the colors these women were wearing. We only see them in black and white. Imagine the colors!
A remarkable hat. Check out the detail in the sleeves. Why do most costumes in movies get the beautiful details all wrong? It is those tiny details that make the moment come alive.
Fashionable friends have fashionable hats and fabulous pets.
This one is a little later, from the 1890’s. Flowers never go out of style.
Fashionable tweens.
I’ll be featuring more amazing and fashionable women’s hats from the 19th Century in future posts.
For all of you top hat fans there will be plenty of dashing men with their hats in the future as well.
Until then let me know if there is anything fashion wise you’d like to see, or other types of 19th Century photographic portraits you’re interested in.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Note: All photos are the property of Juliette Kings.
Of course you could always borrow your boyfriend’s hat.
Any good mother would know to start their children off early with stylish hats. Of course they had a dog.
Fashionable friends in the 1880’s with fabulous hats. Do you think they planned this or just happened to show up wearing these delightful creations?
Notice the feathers. Now imagine the wild bright colors these hats were. There was nothing drab about the colors these women were wearing. We only see them in black and white. Imagine the colors!
A remarkable hat. Check out the detail in the sleeves. Why do most costumes in movies get the beautiful details all wrong? It is those tiny details that make the moment come alive.
Fashionable friends have fashionable hats and fabulous pets.
This one is a little later, from the 1890’s. Flowers never go out of style.
Do you like quirky and silly and lovely things? Of course you do.
Enter the Vampire Maman Love Letter Writing Contest and YOU, yes YOU, might win one of my fabulous Vampire Maman Victorian Fashion and Interesting Dead People Trading Card Sets.
The photos are from my own personal collection.
I’m still working on the cards so what you see today is a work in progress. What you see here is far from done. The real cards will be wonderful and truly amazing. And nobody else in the world will have them.
I’m also giving away coveted WPaD Short Story Anthologies.
But Juliette, what if I don’t have a WordPress blog? No worries. Just send your love letter to juliettevampiremom@gmail.com and I’ll post it here along with all the others.
We looked into the hole and wondered at the waxen decaying forms that lay below us.
“I knew her,” my brother Aaron said, then looked away.
My eyes could stay away from the couple in their formal clothing, I estimated from the 1880’s, deep under the house in simple wooden boxes.
This was no cemetery. They were not the usual dead. I looked at the woman and a hint of recognition swept over me.
My niece Laurel stood next to me. “Did my dad date her?”
“He was in love with her,” I said in a half whisper.
“Could we bring them back?”
“Maybe.”
“Would we want to?”
“Probably not.”
I looked over to where Aaron was talking to the Vampire Hunter who’d found the coffins. My high power attorney brother is also a Vampire, as all of us in my family are. Aaron is often called upon in these cases to give advice on what to do. This time he said to seal them up and let them rest.
Everyone thought she’d gone off to Europe with her lover. Aaron was heartbroken that she’d left him, almost on the alter of marriage. He’d since found the real love of his proverbial undead life in my sister-in-law Verity and had two wonderful children. Yet, those memories and feelings, no matter how old, tend to linger on especially when tinged with betrayal and now what looked to be tragedy.
Aaron has always been the most no nonsense and drama free of my four brothers. He is the one who keeps things in order. He is the one who lives by facts and keeps emotions for the bedroom and his children. Things like this don’t happen to him.
Laurel took his arm and put her head on his shoulder. He looked at me and with a quiet smile said, “I’m fine Jewels. I’m ok.”
