Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

[J.H.Berger]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Comrades,
Concerning earrings being worn by Germans in the 19th century I can tell for sure that it was a tradition for travelling journeymen of the differnt branches of the handicrafts to wear earrings! These were meant as last reserve if they were totally broke. This tradition is still alive and you can still see them from time to time in their black suits and hats traveling with only a bundle .
How many of them kept their earrings after their 3 years and one day of travelling I cannot tell but it expect it was not an uncommonsight at least in the handicrafts.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Q: How much does it cost a pirate to get his ears pierced?
A: About a buck an ear.

The United States was filled with sailors in the 19th century. The Great Lakes and the navigatable rivers were the interstate commerce system. Add to that the number of canal men (who often shared the colorful dress characteristic of seafaring men) and you have a sizable number of men who could be "sailors" from places we no longer associate with the sea.

Dana's Book, BTW, is one of the best things I've ever read about the sea!

[BrettKIllinois]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

What does PEC mean?

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Mr. Samp is correct about the "not moving more than 30 miles" statement. In farming communities, that might be true. However, here along the Ohio River, taking a flatboat of farm produce to New Orleans was a rite of passage for many young men. Our own small community was founded by a Scotsman from Westchester, NY who went to sea during the Revolutionary War, spent over a year on the British prison hulk HMS Trumbull, escaped, finished the war, took his family west to the Ohio country and established a boatyard. As the kids grew up, many of them went to work on the river, Lake Erie or, eventually, the open ocean. Most of them came back either to live or to visit for extended periods. They knew a great deal more about the South than some New York newspapers at the time.

During the canal era, areas that don't appear to be anywhere near a navigable river could very well have been port towns.

It wasn't, and isn't, unusual to find a blue-water sailor at work on the river.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

What does PEC mean?

The same as NUG. :)

[BrettKIllinois]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

NUG?

Chawls please set me straight so I can cypher this thread.

[DOC1861]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Over the years I have had several ask me about my earrings when I'm setting up camp or resting after doing so. We may never truely solve this question. For or against, I still take mine out and put them back in on Sunday in the truck.

[markj]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Here are two images currently for sale on EBay which, amazingly, show the same individual. Both images prominently display his sea-dog rings in both ears. The "dippity-do" hair is also a nice touch.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Caribbean-Pirate-Dag-Wild-Sailor-Man-2-Daguerreotypes_W0QQitemZ230203463359QQihZ013QQcategoryZ408QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

All see image below.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[MissouriStateGuard]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

He wore ear-rings for the benefit of his eyes
Based on the above, it appears that male wear of earrings was considered, at least by ethnic Germans, to be something of a remedy for poor eyesight!

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

Mark,

I found the same report in another paper and thought it interesting, too. Why would earrings benefit eyesight? Another newspaper search turned up an article in a San Francisco paper in 1890:

By many it is believed there is a sympathy between the eyes and the ears, and for this reason there exists a superstition among the common people of Europe that if one suffers from weak eyes, earrings will cure the defect, for they assert the evil humors which injure the eyesight are drawn to the holes which the earrings keep open in the lobes of the ears.

Another newspaper account noted an entry in a Missouri church book dated November 1815 stating

Sister Hannah Edwards was permitted to wear gold earrings for the benefit of her eyes.

So perhaps there was a reason some chose to sport earrings, other than a simple statement of "individuality."

V/R,
Kip

[Custerboy]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

An earring (or two) was standard equipage for Dragoons, as mentioned earlier. Of course, it would be uncommon to find many former Dragoons in the Infantry rather than in the Cavalry...

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Hello-

I know it isn't generally good to look to fellow authentics/hobbyists for answers, but we all do eventually... I heard some ideas on the usage of earrings from European hobbyists of the Napoleonic wars...

...here goes.

When I did the 190th Battle of Waterloo in June 2005, a very well-read/studied British man (name escapes me, but he was an authentic that knew plenty of the Napoleonic period- he chewed my ear off during stops on-the-march and I could tell he was worth-his-salt) who was in my company I was reenacting with explained to me the earring/veteran thing was correct, mostly for mainland Eurpean troops and even then not often, but not uncommon to see at all.

He went-on to say the British Army of the Napoleonic Age mostly thought the practice of soldiers wearing metal hoops in their ears was effeminate, "un-regimental" and unmilitary.

Perhaps we Americans got that idea from the British?

Then again, it COULD be a reenactorism amongst European hobbyists...

Just a thought. Hope it furthers this fascinating discussion along with a modern interpretation I have discovered- could it be correct?

- Johnny Lloyd

PS- See pics below for what I saw there. Note man on left of Pic 1- you might recognize me on left with the "other dude" in the photo, just had to sneak it in there :p

[sgt-phil]

Re: Soldier wearing earrings - eBay

Hi, y'all, and best wishes for 2008.
I'm quite new in the hobby (only 8 years of active campaigning), and living in Europe, and trying the best I can with my limited ways of research to fit in properly and "historically correctly" for my impression, which is Virginia Cavalry, mounted and dismounted.
This topic is also a long dating discussion over here in Europe between mainstream and more "hardcore" reenactors, so we've done a little research too over here. I wear earrings everywhere except when I'm reenacting, which is my own choice, not only for the topics mensioned before by you all, but also for my own security, when things get a bit rough in the heat of the action, anything can happen and I don't want my earlobes cut in two. But historically seen, those men who were stationed in California before the conflict used to take over some habits from the locals which were in fact old Mexicans, who wore earrings since decades and decades. I will try to find my old fotos back from men from the prewar 1st and 2nd US Cavalry, in which a lot of them wear earrings. I had a computercrash some months ago and had to start all over from scratch, but when I find those pictures back I'll post them.