Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

I love this image. On another forum I was mocked for advocating the simple fact that top hats were not a fancy dress hat worn for special occasions or by members of the "upper-class" and rogue "dandies". That they were worn by all classes in mid-19th century society and were simply another choice of hat a man had before heading out to work in the morning. I said that it wouldn't be uncommon to see men digging ditches in them, for which I was blown off, well smart-asses, here's some proof where's yours:

Road workers Redlands, Bristol, England 1854. I highly doubt that man feels like a fine "gentleman" sitting there after a hard days work and I doubt he's going to swagger down Broadway when he's done (Well, unless he has a few pints in him).:p

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

The two following engravings are from Hutching's California Magazine which was published from 1856-1861 to promote California industry, society and natural beauty.

Distributing the mails in the San Francisco Post Office and Custom House. Jan. 1858 issue.


Fishing on the Sacramento River. June 1860 issue.

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Thank you for posting the painting, Ian. I see Mount is a favorite artist of yours as well as mine.

Make that three of us. You want to talk about early-Nineteenth Century Americana folk art, Mount's the man! Though, Ian, you didn't post one of my personal favourites:

California News. William Sydney Mount, 1850. oil on canvas (http://www.staroilpainting.com/b_70_N.htm)

Just to quickly add a few more resources/images: Henry Mayhew's street character illustrations in "Victorian London" was mentioned on the forum once. His photographic-derived drawings shed some more light onto the theme of civilian laborers wearing cravats/neckcloths. And this is during the 1861-62 period, but obviously in London.

I haven't read Le Blanc's text but, I trust someone must have seen "The Neckclothitania" (1818) before...? The publication details some rather obscure methods of tying neck-cloths, nearly 15 different ways. An interesting resource in itself! (http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/regency/tie.html)

It's funny that starching was mentioned, I wonder if some cravats prevented people from walking through a doorway or effectively poking someone's eye out (see attachment)!

[ferraius]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Great pictures Ian. Drawing from my own modern personal life experiences traveling and shoeing horses in Ireland only a few years back I remember how surprised I was at seeing so many of the rural farmers driving around on their tractors and working on their farms weaing respectable coats and ties topped with fine wool caps! And all covered about with manure. It was like a strange world to me and I had already spent time working around old-order Mennonites in Virginia. They didn't dress quite that well for work. So that and fourty cents will buy you a stamp.

Jon O'Harra
Heartless Bastards Mess

[AndrewGrim]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

The Lyon, Shorb & Company pictures can provide alot of information. It shows them in work clothes, and many in there dress clothes as well.

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=bc095f00c0d6759ef08213b6c6f2b900;page=index;c=lysh;g=imls

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Marc Hermann posted this image of a group of workers at a government trimming shop during the War in another thread. You can see the liberal use of cravats, though a least one individual in front isn't wearing one.

[ohpkirk]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

I'll have to try the starching method. The cravat I have was made by the 'old method'...folding the square several times and wrapping the neck twice.

George Caleb Bingham also has some nice paintings that may aid this thread: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/by_...id=384&msg=new

Though his, too, are decidely antebellum.

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Thanks Cody for the images. William Sydney Mount rocks.

In reference to cravats keeping oneself warm or becoming too hot in summer H. Le Blanc in The Art of Tying the Cravat says this:

Starch gives a combination of substance, elasticity, and suppleness to the handkerchief, and by filling up the smallest holes effectually excludes the cold air in winter. In summer it also possesses the incalculable advantage of preventing the Cravat from adhering to closely to the neck, and thereby producing an uncomfortable heat.

A great image of a group of individuals who must have literally stopped work for a moment to have this picture taken:


Love his paper hat.




I want to make it clear to everyone that I'm not advocating that every working class man wore a cravat. Simply that the wearing of cravats by working class men was not uncommon or unheard of. For every image I can find of a working man wearing a cravat I can find at least one image of a working man not wearing one. So its by no means universal, it depends on a number of things one of which may simply be taste.

Here's a good example of a blacksmith. He's not wearing a cravat but he is wearing a vest. I have seen other images though of blacksmiths that are wearing cravats.

[ohpkirk]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Thank you for posting the painting, Ian. I see Mount is a favorite artist of yours as well as mine.

This photo, which I attached to the aforementioned soldier thread, shows Bigfoot Wallace in pre-war Texas wearing the wrinkled, dirty pleated shirt, cravat and open front overshirt. The notion of the pleated shirt as being worn only during dress occasions and by the wealthier men should go the way of earlier 'reenactor myths' (i.e. not walking around solely in shirt sleeves....especially in front of the ladies).
A pleated shirt was a shirt. Nothing groundbreaking with that statement, however, to some it might be.

Also attached is a photo of either a blacksmith or farrier wearing a well worn pleated shirt.

As per cravats, as I mentioned in the soldier thread, when doing 1850's LH's here in Texas I have worn a cravat when working, and I found that with the heat it keeps air from flowing into the neck hole of my shirt and cooling me off. Attached is a photo from one of the LH's where you can see...a pleated shirt being worn under an overshirt while taking a break at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Most of the above pictures have what appear to me to look more like a neckerchief than a cravat. Am I wrong?

What constitutes a cravat before the Civil War is a little different than the pre-sewn silk strip that's then tied around the neck commonly worn by reenactors today. Early cravats start as a square piece of cloth that's folded into a triangle and then folded multiple times to form the cravat to be tied. Or a square piece of cloth is cut in half on the diagonal forming two triangles, the edges of these triangles are felled and then they're folded to the wearers liking to form the cravat to be tied (I like this approach, you get two cravats out of one piece of cloth).

Patterned neck-kerchiefs were also worn. These are roughly of the same size and are folded in the same manner as cravats, so it can be a tough call whether an individual in a painting or a photograph is wearing a cravat or a neck-kerchief. A friend of mine surveyed one of these a little while back, it had a wonderful border print which were common with neck-kerchiefs. Some of the men in William Sydney Mount's paintings might very well be wearing neck-kerchiefs, though it's hard to say with some of the paintings I posted.

I highly recommend The Art of Tying the Cravat (1828) by H. Le Blanc. There's a wealth of information in there.

And then there's stocks, but that's a whole other topic.:)

[Ian McWherter]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Now lets look at some photographs. There is a common assumption among reenactors that people in the mid-19th century always dressed-up for the photographer since it was such an "unusual" event back then. Did you know there were as many Dageurreotypists in New York alone in 1850 as there was in all of England? Americans loved photography and posed for all manner of portraits both formal and informal.

The following are occupational images dating to before the Civil War since that is my primary area of research (so Civil War folks need to take this with a grain of salt). I feel that many of these images are indicative of what these men actually wore on the job. I shall post additional wood-cuts and engravings of men working on the job that further illustrates the wearing of vests and cravats while working.



Tinsmiths wearing their overalls for work.




Pleated front shirt. He made sure he wrinkled and soiled his nice shirt for the image.


A milk delivery man.


Another pleated shirt. Again he must have wrinkled it special for the image.:wink_smil


Street peddlers.

[Guy Gane III]

Re: Cravats Worn by the Working Class.

Most of the above pictures have what appear to me to look more like a neckerchief than a cravat. Am I wrong?

Oh and my dandy comments on the other post were made in jest. I wasn't insinuating that you HAD to be a dandy to wear some kind of neckwear. :wink_smil

[Ian McWherter]

This thread is an off-shoot of another thread specifically discussing cravats worn by Confederate soldiers and how common or uncommon that might have been. Of course, as usual, the thread went off on many different tangents about socio-economic backgrounds, the practicality of them being worn on the job by working class men and of course the usual drive by "dandy" comments were made. So I felt the need to relocate a portion of that conversation here so we can talk all day about cravats worn by working class civilian men.

What irritates me more then anything is the total lack of historical documentation anyone uses to back up their opinions. Many reenactors rely on their "common sense" when putting together their impressions. They ask themselves questions like, "Well if I lived back then I'd wear this kind of clothing," or "I'd wear my clothing in this sort of manner, because as a working man that makes sense to me," or "I don't give a crap about fashion, I just wear whatever!" The hypothesis thus being created they then generally come to a conclusion based on their life experiences as a modern person. Of course never in the course of all this thinking does the thought once cross the persons mind, "Well, I wonder how they actually dressed, and what they felt was a practical way of wearing their clothing?"

To answer this question a challenging prospect awaits them and many simply give up here. What is that "challenging prospect" you say? Well, its actually quite simple, BOOK LEARNING and mucho RESEARCH, preferably from as many sources as one can lay their hands! And you're not going to find this info on any forum where opinion reigns over facts.

"Yes, the CW era farmers hereabouts always wore their cravats when milking the cows, slopping the hogs, and plowing the fields- just as modern farmers always wear their neck ties."

I know this is meant sarcastically, but this kind of thinking is very prevalent. Again, where's the historical information to back this tongue-in-cheek opinion? Just because we all dress like slobs in today's society (heck you don't even have to wear a suit or tie to the office much anymore) doesn't mean the same applies for the mid-19th century working class. A recent survey found neck-wear (ties, bow-ties) among men at an all time low. But while that might be fine for today's man that just wasn't the case with our forefathers.

So did working class men commonly wear cravats on the job? Well let's look at some real documentation. Anyone who has any real information besides just opinion, please, feel free to share it. The following painting are by artist William Sydney Mount and and can be seen along with many other great works of art at http://the-athenaeum.org. None of these men are by any means "dandies" or "rich-folk". All of the following works date to before the Civil War, since that is my area of research, so Civil War folks need to take this with a grain of salt.

Ringing the Pig 1842


Farmers Nooning 1836 (Is that man actually wearing a top-hat on the job? Dear God!)


Long Island Farmer Husking Corn 1833-34


The Power of Music 1847


Caught Napping 1848


Catching Rabbits 1839


Catching Crabs date?