By Jim Sova, ARCHIVES VOLUNTEER
The image at the top leads to one famous hat, but more on that later…
When you spend time at the Museum and Archives looking over displays and paperwork, sometimes patterns come into focus that are not immediately obvious. For me, those patterns related to hats. Men’s hats in particular. Historically, and to some extent currently, you can identify a lot about a man just from the hat they are wearing.
In the photos in the Collection, you can discern a lot about the people in the photo, just from the hats. Is the photo of a large group outdoors at a fair or political gathering? If every man is wearing a brimmed hat, it is the 1930’s or before. No hats at all, likely 40’s to 60’s. Are baseball type caps showing up? It is likely 1970’s or newer. If the photo includes military or police, it will virtually always have them wearing a hat or holding the hat in a conspicuous location. Hats in formal portraits are interesting. Many of the early Stephen Benson collection from the 1860’s will have the man posing without his hat on, but the hat will be placed on a small table right beside him. Below is an example, a photograph of John Lowry in 1864. He went on to be the Mayor of Napanee in 1905-6. (this is photo A1907.01.054)
The hat can display status in a number of ways. If it is a newer fancy fashionable hat made of more expensive materials like silk or beaver felt, the man was well to do. If it was a well-worn cloth cap, that may have been all he could afford.
Sometimes the hat indicates a job. Think of police, military, airline pilots or even early railroad conductors where the silhouette of the cap alone can identify them in a group.
The fedora worn by Indiana Jones in the movie series has become an icon for the series. The hat places the character in the 1930’s. The outline of the hat allows us to pick him out of a crowd. A silhouette of Indiana Jones in the hat with his bull whip has become the most identifiable image from the series.
Now back to that button at the top. It is from the Liberal leadership bid of Eugene Whelan after Prime Minister Trudeau stepped down. Eugene, Minister for Agriculture under Trudeau was so closely tied to the green Stetson that the hat is used to identify him on the button rather than his picture. Looking over the group hoping to take over from the current Trudeau, hats no longer seem to be a thing. Are hats no longer part of a politician’s collection of props?
