While hats are still worn today, they are not as common as they once were. In this picture of a crowd on Stillwater’s Main Street in front of the American Legion Post, the majority of the people are wearing hats—or holding them—all except for the very young. It appears they are dressed in their “Sunday best,” and might be ready to welcome a visiting dignitary.
The Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar has an extensive textile collection—including over 250 hats. The Museum’s collection also contains numerous historic photographs including pictures of people wearing assorted kinds of headgear, many of them from the Helt or Cunningham photograph collections. An exhibit planned for April would have showcased quite a few of these hats and related items—from hatpins to hat boxes to wooden hat-making forms. While the actual exhibit will be rescheduled for later in the year, provided here is a sort of virtual exhibit.
While hats are still worn today, they are not as common as they once were. In this picture of a crowd on Stillwater’s Main Street in front of the American Legion Post, the majority of the people are wearing hats—or holding them—all except for the very young. It appears they are dressed in their “Sunday best,” and might be ready to welcome a visiting dignitary.
Hats can either be very practical and used to protect one’s head from the elements, they can be part of a uniform or work outfit, or they can be very stylish and make a fashion statement. These two photographs are of the same family and farm—just a few years apart. In the first picture, everyone is sporting a hat; in the second image, the woman seems to have misplaced hers. Andrew Jackson Rutter took part in the 1889 Land Run and homesteaded 5 miles south and 2 miles east of Stillwater. The picture shows their log cabin home and they also had a log granary (a storage place for threshed grain).
Although these two men are both dressed for work, you can deduce from their clothing and hats the type of work they might do.
Today, most of us go about our daily work without adorning our heads unless we have a job that takes us outside or we need protection for another reason. The “cotton choppers” wear straw hats and scarves to protect their heads from the sun while the group of farm hands wear Derbys, Gatsbys, and Stetsons. Since the arrival of the Five Tribes, cotton has been a major agricultural commodity in Oklahoma and continues to be grown in the state today. These early 1920s auto mechanics working at Central Garage in Stillwater wear similar hats—perhaps to keep their heads warm as the garage was not heated? Wearing a business suit and a hat that one would think would blow off in the wind while riding a motorcycle seems impractical. Did he deliver telegrams or was the man simply posing for his picture?
Hats were also worn as part of a uniform. The nearly all-woman band is dressed in a type of Fedora hat. Military hats, graduation caps (also known as mortarboards), and fire hats continue to be part of the uniforms of the people fulfilling these roles today. (Click on each image to see the entire photograph.) 1940s Washington High School graduates in their caps and gowns. Local firefighters drive the fire wagon in a parade in Stillwater on Nov 11, 1940.
These ladies all sport fancy hats. Hats such as those pictured might have cost $10 in 1900—simpler hats were about $2; in today’s dollars, the fancy hat would cost approximately $310. (Click on each image to see the entire photograph.) Even the older woman pictured in her practical bonnet takes pride in her heavily starched and full-crowned hat. Buying fancy hats was an investment that women would protect by storing their purchases in hat boxes of all shapes and sizes. Note the two hat boxes from past Stillwater businesses.
And, to keep their hats from blowing away, hat pins secured the hats to their hair—usually two at a time—the hat pins themselves making a fashion statement. They could also be used in a lady’s defense! (See news cartoon about a Kansas woman.) (Click on each image to see the entire photograph.)
The May 2020 issue of SLM included a Hats themed word search with this article. Click this link to view the PDFof the word search, terms and definitions as well as the solutions page.
