36thIDAlex Posted January 9, 2020 Share #1 Posted January 9, 2020 Hey everyone, This is my first WWI/Post Span Am Donald Duck cap. I just picked it up off of the Facebook forums and just had a few questions. I’m always a fan of any interesting objects which relate back to my home state so you can imagine I was excited to find this. The Kentucky was a Kearsage class Dreadnaught commissioned in 1900, sailed in Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, participated in our detachment to the Mexican Revolution, and later trained sailors during WWI. I loved the history on the hat already, but was wondering if there were any good ways to date this? There are a few condition issues, mostly with the interior liner. It suffers from pretty bad deterioration as it appears the original owner stuffed newspaper between the leather and the cloth to keep shape. The acid from the paper must have reacted to the leather as it is now fairly crumbly. I do not know nearly anything about WWI and prewar Navy items so I was hoping someone could help me properly date this piece. I found a photo of the shipboard band wearing identical caps in 1907 but don’t know how much the flat cap construction differs throughout that period. It also has a name, H H PIGGOT, which I have yet to identify. I have never researched Navy this early so if anyone has some leads or pointers it would be much appreciated. I’d love to find the exact time and place this hat was aboard. Alex Good close up of the hats in action Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P-40Warhawk Posted January 9, 2020 Share #2 Posted January 9, 2020 Hi, definitely WWI period. When I saw this, I figured the first letter was not an 'H' but a 'B', so did a little digging and here you go: Barry Hayes Piggott Born 1896 NY state Died 1976 New York Enlisted July 17, 1918 USNRF at recruiting station Buffalo, NY Served:NTS Great Lakes 7-20-18 to 8-12-18 Naval Operating Base Norfolk VA. 8-12-18 to 8-23-18 USS Kentucky 8-23-18 to 11-11-18 (keep in mind this date is pulled from his NY service card, and so it only shows dates between April 6, 1917 and November 11, 1918 for the most part. Discharged July 14, 1919 at Receiving Ship New York. His highest rank was Engineman 1st Class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
36thIDAlex Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share #3 Posted January 10, 2020 Hi, definitely WWI period. When I saw this, I figured the first letter was not an 'H' but a 'B', so did a little digging and here you go: Barry Hayes Piggott Born 1896 NY state Died 1976 New York Enlisted July 17, 1918 USNRF at recruiting station Buffalo, NY Served: NTS Great Lakes 7-20-18 to 8-12-18 Naval Operating Base Norfolk VA. 8-12-18 to 8-23-18 USS Kentucky 8-23-18 to 11-11-18 (keep in mind this date is pulled from his NY service card, and so it only shows dates between April 6, 1917 and November 11, 1918 for the most part. Discharged July 14, 1919 at Receiving Ship New York. His highest rank was Engineman 1st Class. That's great! Thanks so much for the help! Where did you go to find this info?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P-40Warhawk Posted January 10, 2020 Share #4 Posted January 10, 2020 That's great! Thanks so much for the help! Where did you go to find this info?? Hi, if you have ancestry (or I think Fold3) his New York WWI service abstract is available online. That is where the information came from. Happy that it helped you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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