T. Hodgkinson

Relatively unknwon today, the devonaire Francis J. Carolan was often discussed at the turn-of-the century in the same breath as industrialist Henry C. Frick and other dandy elites. Carolan was part of the fashionable set in San Francisco, where high-end shops procured shirts like these, crafted on London Pall Mall street, for the nouveau riche. Carolan's taste for sumptuous fabrics was reported in The Sunday Oregonian on August 1, 1909: "These haberdasher artists whisper softly that Francis J. Carolan is especially fastidious about this part of his clothing," "this part" here referring to his silk underwear. As evidenced by this suite of richly patterned and tinted cotton and silk shirts, Carolan did not shy from the bolder side of the dandy spectrum.