From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   The Grey Wolfe wrote:   
      
   > I'll have to disagree that vests were more a movie or Hollywood   
   > conception. On the contrary the classic Cowboy era (1866-1886) was   
   > during the height of "Victorian Morality " , when a man having an open   
   > collar or going out in his shirt sleeves was considered quite a No No!   
   > For a working man (Cowboy or other) a coat could be restrictive and hot,   
   > so only the vest  was worn in compromise during warmer weather.Only when   
   > far away from society might the vest come off, the collar open and the   
   > sleeves roll up.I have hundreds of original 19th cen. photos and the   
   > only ones I have of men in there shirt sleeves are pre Civil War.I have   
   > three Cowboy photos from the classic era.Two are wearing vests the other   
   > is wearing a coat.   
   >  There are  always a few exceptions of course! But on the whole a person   
   > in that time stayed as covered up as possible.Most of the Photos that   
   > one sees of Cowboys in there shirt sleeves are from the turn of the   
   > century(1890-1910) when Victorian Ideas began to loosen up a bit!   
      
   I hadn't considered the question of vests much before. In looking   
   through photos of working cowboys from various parts of the country, the   
   earliest available in quantity being from about 1870, I note a couple of   
   things. One is that I seem to detect some regional differences. Without   
   doing an exhaustive review, I seem to find vests more common in the   
   north, which I suppose would make sense. The "working" part of working   
   cowboy was largely in the spring and summer, and somewhat cooler climes   
   would encourage the versatile vest.   
      
   There seem to be very few 19th century photos of working cowboys in the   
   South Texas brush country. There, covering up was a necessity, but it   
   wasn't the sort of place a photographer would yearn to go, and brush   
   popping didn't lend itself to photography, much of the work being out of   
   sight.   
      
   I don't find them nearly so universal as the movie and film portrayals   
   would have it. Of course, the older westerns didn't go in much for   
   coats, which were common. Movie cowboys didn't sweat much, either, and   
   stayed remarkably clean.   
      
   As I recall from media art of the mid-19th century, vests weren't   
   depicted so much. Of course, a lot of that art was done by people who   
   hadn't been west of New York and who were largely guessing. And it's   
   quite possible that, to a city artist back east, shirts-only cowboys   
   might have seemed to suggest the image of barbarity with which they   
   sought to titillate the readers. Leslie's and Harper's aren't reliable   
   sources for images, unless one knows that the artist was one who was   
   actually on the spot, and even they are suspect when it comes to   
   depicting behavior.   
      
   After reading a good many contemporary working cowboys turned writers   
   from the trail driving days, clothing is mentioned occasionally, often   
   in reference to it poor condition after months on the trail. I don't   
   recall vests being mentioned, which might be because it didn't seem   
   worth mentioning, or it might have been that they weren't so common in   
   Texas.   
      
   So, where does that leave the vest in a scheme of "authentic" old west   
   working cowboy costume? Acceptable, but not required, I suppose.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)