Working class clothing?

[littlealison]

I'm not sure if this belongs here, but please move it if there is a better place!
I have been trying to visualise my gggrandfather.

Strong Scots accent and a beard. A big broad man with lots of energy, is my impression. I have no photo or portrait of any kind, so..........
What would a Scots bottlemaker, newly journeyman, have worn in about 1830 in Dumbarton?
On his head? On his feet?

And what might he have worn later, in 1870 as a manager of a bottle works in Glasgow?

[Currie]

Hello Alison,

I remembered a site you posted a while back that had these fantastic pictures of workers in a glass blowing factory. https://tokecity.com/forums/showthread.php4?t=33948

It looks to me as though they would have been taken quite a long time after your fellow gave up that sort of work. But I imagine the clothing would have been similarly well worn and old and differing only so much as the usual fashion changes.

You would think that in the earlier times there would have been more beards around. Many of the workers in the photographs don’t appear to be old enough to have one.

As to what a bottleworks manager would be wearing in the 1870s, a three piece suit comes to mind but not too flash. Certainly neat and tidy like with any job where you have to deal with people rather than just products and where you need to be a symbol of authority.

I’d be tempted to look for some movies on YouTube set in the 1870s or thereabouts where you can get a feel of the atmosphere of the period. Even someone doing similar clerical or managing work in a cowboy movie, if in a similar climate, may not be too far out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:F ... th_century

Just guessing really,
All the best,
Alan

[littlealison]

Hi Alan - sorry about delay, I have been a bit busy!
I had forgotten about this site (the link, I mean) altogether. I think I was looking for spats at the time? I think you were right about no protective clothing.
These pics say to me around 1900? Or even a little later.

What sparked this off for me was seeing a recent 'findmypast' TV programme about the Tay Bridge disaster ( I used to live in Dundee, so knew something already) and one local newspaper sketch shown, which showed people in a rescue boat with tam o’ shanters on - this in 1879.....so I wondered what other differences in clothing there might have been.

This was Scotland.... I could see John Little with one of those on.
They are fancy dress costumes now as far as I can make out online, although worn since the 1500s. Unless military. But some headgear was essential wear then, if maybe not at work.

Also beards seem to be mandatory in the early 1800s. I am thinking that a trimmed beard would be less inflammable.....in a situation of furnaces and hot glass.
Far less beards by the early 1900s, though - just not in fashion. Better - safety - razors?

You are right about the youth of some of the workers. In Ireland in 1901, the youngest I found was 13 - but I know that 100 years earlier, boys as young as 9 were employed.

The 1870s...I do have a pic of his son from 1889, the year his father died, and he's wearing just such a suit, but with a wing collar and tie. I think this is spot on. But no hat visible...and I think it would have been a bowler. I have seen other people in a similar job with them.
However this is a very formal photo, and maybe he was dressed up for it!

From the description of his father's funeral, though, by the time he retired he may have been of the status to wear a top hat....(this was Lancashire)...but I am having difficulty in finding the exact status of top hats!

The films don't seem to offer a lot, I'm afraid...I find that recent films are much more accurate re costume....some are too old! Still, I may find something.
Let me know if you come across anything else! Thanks - Alison

[johnniegarve]

Alison, I think a moustache would have been more popular than a full beard, particularly in a dirty/sweaty job. Easier to wash the phyzog! The bowler came in about the mid 1800s. Bunnets were the ubiquitous working class headgear until about 50 years ago.

[littlealison]

Now Christmas is over - about the headgear, you mean a flat cap, not a toorie bunnet?

The pic I have of the son John Little, he has a beard but it has been trimmed. All pics of my oldest male relatives are bearded, some very hedgehog-like or biblical!
I just don't see his father being clean-shaven that early.

[lynne smith]

I have never seen such wonderful pictures, a really good look at our past, seeing all those children at work. I would love to print these pictures off to make an album to show. Would I be allowed to do this? I can relate to the glass blowing, my hubby and I visited one of these factories in Venezuela a few years back.
On the subject of social status - I had never thought of this, but now I think after reading this material, that my grandfather told my grandmother that he was an only child, that his father had left his mother, went to the USA and opened up a foundry, and that he had been in the military (Hoosers, or something like that). In fact, his father was a joiner, and died early in life, his mother also died early in life, and he was adopted by his mom's sister and her husband. A lot of his relatives were coal miners, and so was he at the age of 14. My grandfather immigrated to Canada in 1904, so who would know - guess what grandfather! This is all speculation of course. Just to add to the story, my grandfather did have a sibling - a sister!

Lynne

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings.

On this subject I would be turning to the likes of the other Alan "currie" our in house expert re the print media, and ask is there any illustrative press of the period, accessible on line. Their speciality would have been to represent the people of the time, with early photography and engravings etc. Even a few strokes of a cartoonist’s pen can be very revealing.

Alan SHARP.

PS. Photographic collections at the local Museum, can also be very helpful, and usually the collection curator very knowledgeable.

[Currie]

Hello Lynne et al,

I haven’t heard of Hoosers in the military. There were Hussars who were a Light Cavalry.

Many of those Glass Works photographs would have been by Lewis Hine, and are on Wikimedia Commons at very high resolutions suitable for commercial printing. http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.ph ... uselang=en

You’ll probably find other interesting stuff there by searching for “child labour” (or labor), “glass works” or whatever takes your fancy.

“Unlike traditional media repositories, Wikimedia Commons is free. Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long as they follow the terms specified by the author.” Click on the Welcome link at the left of their page for more detail.

If you are particularly interested in child labour in glass works there was a Parliamentary report in 1865 that runs to nearly 100 pages.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=BCp ... J&pg=PA181

You don’t usually find a lot of good pictorial matter in 19th century newspapers and books. You do get some great stuff in old 20th Century magazines online at Google Books. Here’s just a few that cover a wide range of topics.

Life magazine 1935 to 1972. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=H0o ... es_r&cad=1

Popular Mechanics 1905 to 2005. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6D8 ... es_r&cad=1

Popular Science 1872 to 2009.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9Ck ... es_r&cad=1

All the best,
Alan

[Currie]

Speaking of pictures of costume and old books, have a look at the great images in these. They even have patterns in one so you can make your own. But there’s nothing there you would wear at the factory unfortunately.

The World of Fashion, 1867.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=axw ... AJ&pg=PT10

Gazette of Fashion and Cutting Room Companion, 1868
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=tCI ... frontcover

Alan

[Russell]

Hi Alan

You do find some absolutely fascinating items. In the second "Gazette of Fashions" there is considerable detail on the 1866 Parliamentary Act on the employment of children in workshops which gives some insight into the working conditions of many children, particularly in urban situations prior to the Act -and no doubt for a considerable time after it was passed.

Keep finding them please

Russell