Tip Your Hat to This History of Hats Quiz

The 1894 novel “Trilby” by author George du Maurier was one of the most popular books in the U.S. and Great Britain in the late 19th century. It was adapted for the stage, and during the first London performance one of the characters wore a Tyrolean (or Bavarian)-style hat, which soon became known as a “Trilby” hat. The book also gave us the term “svengali,” meaning someone who exerts control over another, after the villain of the story.

Former President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk banned people from wearing the fez in Turkey in 1925 because the hat was closely associated with the Ottoman Empire. Atatürk wanted to promote Turkey as a modern, secular state and move away from Eastern traditions to align Turkey with the West. The red conical hat with its distinctive black tassel originated in the Moroccan city of Fez, and is still worn by many Moroccans.

Pith helmets were first adopted by the Spanish military, who were inspired by traditional wide-brimmed, triangular Filipino salakot hats. Pith helmets are traditionally made from sholapith, a dried spongy substance created from the pith of the aeschynomene plant. In the 19th century, the pith helmet was adopted by European colonial troops in India and Indochina, and became associated with exploration and hunting.

The campaign hat emerged in the 1840s when troops in the U.S. army began wearing civilian hats instead of the impractical shako (a cylindrical military cap). By the 1870s, a black felt version became regulation attire. The color and shape of the campaign hat has changed over time, but the popular design is still traditionally used by the Boy Scouts, Canadian Mounties, New Zealand Army, and U.S. Park Rangers, among others. The Swiss Guards, however, traditionally wear a black helmet or cap.

Phrygian caps are soft conical hats of felted wool that sit close to the head and have a crown that curls over the front. The ancient hat originated in Phrygia, Anatolia, and in ancient Roman times was known as the “pileus,” or liberty cap, often worn by freed enslaved people. As a result, the phrygian cap became emblematic of liberty, and was adopted as a symbol in the American Revolution (1765–1791) and the French Revolution (1787–1799).

Top hats were traditionally worn at presidential inaugurations, but Dwight D. Eisenhower instead sported a Homburg at his 1953 swearing-in ceremony. The style originated in the German town of Bad Homburg as a hunting hat, and was popularized as a fashion choice in the late 19th century by King Edward VII of England. The Homburg has been associated with many politicians since, including British Prime Ministers Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill.

Berets, felted disc-shaped hats, were originally made to be worn by shepherds on either side of the Pyrénées, the mountain range which straddles the border of France and Spain. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the artisanal hat became popular among artists, and was later adopted by the military. More recently, berets have become a Bohemian-style fashion statement often associated with Parisian style.

In 1849, nobleman Edward Coke approached London hatmakers Lock & Co. to make a new style of hat — one that would protect his gamekeepers’ heads from low-hanging branches and stay securely in place while they managed the country estate. Chief hatmaker Thomas Bowler came up with a snug, black felt hat with a narrow brim. The bowler (or Derby) hat notably became popular with American railway workers and Wild West outlaws.

The first pilgrims to arrive in colonial America wore the traditional Capotain hats worn by Puritans across northern Europe. The black hats, worn by men and boys, have a tall, conical crown and a narrow brim. Today we think of this style as having a large buckle on the front, but this is an inaccurate image invented by 19th-century painters that romanticized the past.

Panama hats are traditionally handmade from the straw of the toquilla palm in Ecuador. They became known as Panama hats in the 19th century, when they were exported to Panama for easier shipping to international customers. The hat’s association with Panama was cemented when Theodore Roosevelt wore one to visit the newly completed Panama Canal in 1906.

Ever since the first European universities were established in the 11th century, scholars have worn academic caps. At the time, most scholars wore hats similar to the pileus (hats worn by monks). It’s believed this eventually morphed into a square tasseled cap. The hats came to be known as mortarboards due to their similarity to the flat mortar holders used by bricklayers.

Fashionable in the 18th century, the three-cornered hat developed on the battlefield when soldiers wearing wide-brimmed hats began pinning up the corners to channel rainwater away from their faces. Also known as a “cocked hat,” tricornes were worn by four U.S. Presidents, starting with George Washington and ending with James Monroe — earning him the nickname “The Last Cocked Hat.”

Sombreros are traditional wide-brimmed straw hats worn by Mexican people to shade their faces from the sun. The hat gets its name from the Spanish word “sombra,” meaning “shade.” The hat is thought to have originated in the 15th century with Mestizo cowboys who needed protection from the elements while working on ranches in central Mexico.

Up until the Victorian era in Britain, straw hats were only socially acceptable to wear when playing summer sports. By the end of the 19th century, however, city-dwellers had begun wearing flat-topped Boaters in the summer. The stiff straw hats were usually encircled by a thick Petersham ribbon. They got their name from the young men in striped blazers and flannel trousers who originally wore the hats when rowing.

When hatmaker John Stetson traveled West in the 1850s, he noticed how poorly outfitted prospectors were. He decided to make a sturdy hat that could protect against the elements. In 1865, Stetson launched the “Boss of the Plains,” a felt hat with a wide brim and domed crown that could be creased as the wearer saw fit. The design was an immediate success and Stetson is still synonymous with cowboy hats today.

French milliner Caroline Reboux developed the cloche in 1908. The style, which gained its name from its bell shape (“cloche” means bell in French), became the signature look of the 1920s. Most hats in the early 20th century were huge with wide brims and elaborate trims, but the simple, close-fitting silhouette of the cloche perfectly suited the freer fashions and shorter haircuts of the Roaring Twenties.

Woolen flat caps became the hat of choice for the working classes in Britain after a 1571 law required all male citizens over the age of six to wear a cap on Sundays. While the law was later repealed, the flat cap became a staple, and migrated with British workers travelling to the U.S. Young American newspaper sellers adopted an especially floppy version of the flat cap known as the “newsboy” cap.

Abraham Lincoln stood over six feet tall, and to accentuate his height even more he liked to sport a top hat. Top hats have always been eye-catching; when haberdasher John Hetherington wore the first top hat in public in London in 1797, it was reported that the unusual headgear caused a number of women to faint! Lincoln’s slightly battered stovepipe top hat became an indelible part of his image.

Though “Sherlock Holmes” author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never described his titular character as wearing a deerstalker on the written page, the hat became indelibly associated with the famous detective thanks to the early illustrators of Doyle’s stories. Illustrator Sidney Paget was the first to depict Holmes in a deerstalker in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” in 1891, and since then the hunting cap has become synonymous with detectives.

The bicorne became the hat of choice for military leaders at the end of the 18th century, and was most famously sported by Napoleon Bonaparte. Traditionally, bicornes were worn with the peak facing toward the front and back, but Napoleon famously wore his bicorne sideways so he would be immediately recognizable to his troops on the battlefield.