Recently as I was paging through some Civil War era photos, some commenters were looking at Naval officers in straw hats and saying that they were not regulation headgear. That might have been true of the Army, I honestly don’t know, but in the Navy these were most certainly in the regulations. This led me to a deep dive into the world of straw hats for officers. Note that straw hats for enlisted men are an entirely different subject and we will only touch upon them to contrast them to the officer versions.

 

The first mention I can find of such hats occurs in a Regulation issued by George Bancroft, June 4, 1845 with an effective date of Jan. 1, 1846, and was thus regulation for the Mexican-American War: https://thenavycwo.com/the-archives/uniform-regulations?task=download.send&id=100:regulations-for-the-uniform-and-dress-of-the-navy-of-the-united-states-of-america-1841&catid=15 (Harvard College’s copy), pg 16-17 (internal):

 

“STRAW HATS.

In summer or in tropical climates, officers, when in undress and without epaulets, may wear on ship board white straw hats— the body of the hat to be six inches in height, and the rim three and a half inches in width.”

 

In the regulations that follow in the years following, I detect three different sets of specifications and so I will assign 3 different theoretical models

 

Always with uniform regulations (even today), one can’t just assume that what is written is precisely what actually happened in practice. As with all my articles/posts about these obscure 19th century uniform, external evidence is required for verification. That evidence in order of importance is surviving artifacts with good provenance, photographs, art from eyewitnesses or artists known to be picky about details, and lastly text descriptions from eyewitnesses. Of far less use are engravings, and indeed I generally completely ignore them.

 

For each of the models, the level of evidence varies drastically and so it’s best to discuss the state of things before diving in.

M1846- 1 photograph (probably a daguerreotype); and one very early painting which suggests particular dimensions that were in use at that time. This is rather sparse. No known such hats are known to survive, though that’s hardly surprising given the relative lack of durability in straw, the comparatively small pool of USN officers at the time, and the difficulties in provenance since such hats were used extensively by civilians. 
 

M1862- many photographs, especially from Matthew Brady, but others as well; one surviving hat with solid provenance at the National Civil War Naval Museum. With this sort of evidence available, we need not rely on art.

 

M1866- some photographs, no known surviving hats, but later fashion follows these dimensions as the most popular form all the way to comparatively modern times.

 

1st Model: M1846

 

Fortunately, the Mexican War was the first conflict for which the then relatively new daguerreotype photograph was available but was quite expensive requiring a copper plate covered in silver. Keeping in mind that straw hats were exclusively “underway” uniform (only to be worn onboard ship, not on land and weren’t considered suitable to be seen on land), it is amazing that any photographs would be produced, let alone survived, but as they say, history is stranger than fiction and we have one.

 

First, the best version of the photo is held by the Newport Historical Society and they generously provided me a high quality image for use on the Forum, for which I needed to sign a guarantee and so I will remind the reader that I don’t have the rights to the image and publishing for profit will require separate arrangements with them. Regardless, here’s the link to their image information: https://collections.newporthistory.org/Detail/objects/30758

Courtesy of Newport Historical Society.
 

The officer is Stephen Bleecker Luce, who is important enough to have a Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Luce as well as the usual Navy information, though there’s an error in the combined register.

 

Luce, Stephen B.
Midshipman, 19 October, 1841. Passed Midshipman, 10 August, 1847. Master, 15 September, 1855. Lieutenant, 16 September, 1855. Lieutenant Commander, 16 July, 1862. Commander, 25 July, 1866. Captain, 28 December, 1872. Commodore, 25 November, 1881. Rear Admiral, 5 October, 1885. Retired List, 25 March, 1889.

 

Here’s the error, and it’s significant for the dating of the photo: (Navy Registers of 1850, 1851, 1852 https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/HD/Lineal Lists/1850-1852.pdf?ver=2019-03-28-114255-650&timestamp=1553865945284)

He wasn’t a passed midshipman until March of 1848.

 

I think the photo is him as a passed midshipman because of a detail on the collar:

Detail

 

As you can see, there is something of the same shade as the anchor above the anchor and only partially covered by the long tail of his cravat (as it was called at the time). That I think to be most probably a star, which in the uniform regulations of 1841 was what insignia was used to distinguish a passed midshipman from a midshipman (as it had been since the 1830 uniform regs).

 

According to a biography of Luce https://www.google.com/books/edition/Life_and_Letters_of_Rear_Admiral_Stephen/nSpCAAAAIAAJ?hl=en (pg 34), he had been on the USS Columbus during the Mexican War and had only been detached to the Academy to be examined for passed Midshipman on March 8, 1848 so that month is the earliest the photo could be, with the latest being his promotion to Master in 1855, but I think it most probable that he got the photo while on land to mark his promotion. The round jacket was usually just for use underway, but it was the uniform for midshipmen even on land at the new Academy (see my post on blue cloth caps concerning midshipmen). It would be relatively easy for a passed midshipman to sew (or have sewn on) the star and throw on the hat from his time in the fleet and get a photograph before returning to sea duty.

 

Lastly, in the 1840’s and early 1850’s, there must always be some attention paid to which photographic technology is actually being employed. First, the image is not what it appears. It looks like a modern photograph of a cased image, but it is in fact a photo of a photograph of a cased image. This was verified by a staff member at the museum. Someone in the family of Stephen B. Luce apparently took a photograph of their original and donated that photograph to the Society. Both the staff member and I agree that it was most likely a daguerreotype, but no digital record of the original appears to exist. It is most probably either in the hands of a now distant descendant or relative or lost.

 

Analyzing the photo in detail results in the surprising conclusion that the hat isn’t regulation. To establish this we’ll have to engage in some reconstruction using modern reproductions and comparing the images produced.

The crown is too tall. Let’s try the M1862 dimensions instead.

 

 

 

The profile isn’t the taller M1846 but the M1862!

 

Let’s couple this with another image we used back in the blue cloth cap post:

^1826 https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/09/02/hats-caps-and-chapeaux/

 

 

(Note, I couldn’t get the brim in my M1862 to match the art because it’s too tight on my head. I did what I could).

 

Again, the profile better matches a less tall crown. This isn’t a lot of evidence to go on, but I think it at least possible that what the Navy was looking for was a hat with a noticeably taller crown than the usual enlisted man’s hat. Indeed, as the crown sizes shrink, so too do the explicit details that contrast with the enlisted hats. First, enlisted hats almost always had a bow with 2 tails that extended away from the crown.

 

^from a group of uniform items from George Washington Brown https://www.horsesoldier.com/products/identified-items/uniforms-and-cloth/43524 also featured in Bluejackets pg 226, 243, etc. Incidentally, this hat also includes the sewn circle pattern at the top center of the hat that was often but not always found on enlisted caps & hats, but never on officer hats, as we’ll see in the next section on the M1862.

 

What do these images have to teach us? Ultimately that the taller 6” crown isn’t in evidence in the Navy. Now it is entirely possible that they used it but no artistic rendition exists. I have reviewed every possible source of the antebellum Navy (e.g. the Exploring Expedition). There are several sketchbooks and sketches out there, but even in the tropics, the eyewitness artists invariably show officers in blue cloth caps. One of many examples:

Note the sailors in their short crown straw hats.

 

Now, it’s not like the taller crown wasn’t made in this era. We have at least one surviving hat of similar dimensions to the regulation hat, though civilian:

^5.5” tall https://www.nhhistory.org/object/194979/hat

Henry Clay’s hat

^https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_498446

 

Mine for comparison:

 

And quite a few daguerreotypes:

Links available on request. Note this last one features a hat even taller than 6”. In that same range of height is a photo of a military man, most likely of Mexican War era, though I could not find the actual source of the photo or who owns the original,  given that it’s a daguerreotype with a simple mat, it’s likely early. I take no position on the identity of the man, and it’s immaterial to the point of this post.

 
 

In conclusion, there’s a lot we don’t know about this early model. The only naval examples we have for certain show a smaller than 6” crown, even though 6” and taller crowns were around and used by gentlemen in the period.

 

M1862

As is usual we don’t know if these dimensions were merely baptizing what was already being done or genuinely imposing a new set of dimensions. There’s at least one example with solid provenance held by the National Civil War Naval Museum, though since they removed their digital collection from public access, it’s taken some clever dredging of private photos of their collection to get anything:

^https://m.yelp.com/biz_photos/national-civil-war-naval-museum-columbus?start=60&select=liUp9ED3e4cPaEupTZlryg

^detail of https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2024/28/20397008_dae8b0e6-2828-4848-9849-93400ea3ce81.jpeg

 

John T. Luck

Assistant Surgeon, 24 January, 1862. Resigned 23 June, 1868.

 

There are quite a few photos. I’ll give a selection of the most instructive.

^This I include first because it is of a minority type, with a slightly rounded top, which I also believe Dr. Luck’s to be. The vast majority of surviving photos show a much more flat top.

 

Mine for reference:

^detail of https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/nh-1---nh-3067/nh-500---nh-599/nh-575-uss-monitor--1862-.html

This one is significant for what it doesn’t show, namely the enlisted sewed circle in the center. It’s just plain straw.

 

^https://www.loc.gov/item/2011647352/?__cf_chl_f_tk=ZkPG6gbdpyUL_xzVSH3_EEK1bexHefdOyfQ6ofLbCxM-1782838004-1.0.1.1-Ydb.qg.2HnKa.BsU3Z7lpAHLn5t0wmyK3fqvK0unKQw

^https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/268125

^https://catalog.archives.gov/id/530272?objectPage=2

^from 1873 https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-124000/NH-124444.html

Although this is almost at the end of the service life of the officer straw hat, I believe that it shows all three models, though the 6” is perhaps on a civilian, it wouldn’t surprise me to discover he was a chaplain.

 

Included in “plain black” I also believe to exclude ship names such as this enlisted hat:

^https://griffinmilitaria.com/product/civil-war-era-uss-mahopac-sennet-straw-hat/ The expert at the site mentions (as does the Navy History site) a “regulation” in 1866 that “introduced” white sennet enlisted hats but the various authors never produce a text or source that shows this. Plenty of visual evidence shows US sailors with such hats well before the end of the Civil War, so that is at best baptizing previous practice. That might also be the case for the named tally, but in the absence of an actual source, it’s really anyone’s guess. Regardless, a name is not “plain,” for which we actually have a text.

M1866

 

The post-war dimensions is what most modern people would recognize as the old-fashioned straw hat/boater/skimmer and is associated with barbershop quartets for instance. Here’s my own classic boater and its dimensions:

Note that more “modern” style boaters are thicker and sturdier.

 

^https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016647920/ Also one of the only examples from a reputable source that shows enlisted type hanging ribbons for an officer adjacent type. It’s also possible that the previous midshipman with the rounded crown may also be this size. It’s hard to tell.

Note that since this style of hat became so ubiquitous, finding a specifically Naval one would require solid provenance and I don’t know if any are extant. 
 

Since by this time the gentleman’s straw hat and the sailor’s hat have become short crowned, the regulations add “unlined.” Note that as far as we can tell, that was nearly always the case, at least as far as the daguerreotypes show. The type of lining meant includes binding with cloth at the edges:

I repeat the top view below for reference.

 

Note that sometimes gentlemen bound the edges in civilian hats, but this appears to have been the minority option.

 

I haven’t yet encountered an officer in uniform wearing bound edges (except maybe the leftmost of the three seated officers above), so I think this was an implied or customary usage. 
 

In summary, I think all of the regulations on this item were to ensure that the officers were visually distinct from the enlisted men while also giving the officers something lighter to wear. The model doesn’t appear to have been the earlier round hats (which had much much smaller brims), but rather civilian fashion.

 

The End of the Straw Hat

 

Eventually, the straw hat gave way to the M1883 (cork) helmet which stayed in official use until WW1, but stops being pictured after the boxer rebellion and probably was simply unused by officers, even if allowed. 

^Spanish American War, most likely https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016804172/

^https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/USN-901000/USN-901029.html

Very well done and quite informative.

 

This type of items never drew any interest from me but your article was so interesting that I read it all and enjoyed seeing the variety of hats that were worn.

 

Was there a pith helmet in the Navy at this time?

At the end of the article I mention the M1883 Sun helmet. Technically it was made of cork, not pith, but most people would call it a pith helmet, yes. Here’s another photo

 

On the bottom is the official illustration from the 1886 uniform regulations and on top is the artist’s photo model recently rediscovered at the Smithsonian. I wrote a post about those illustrations here: https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/411790-the-rediscovered-1886-us-navy-officer-uniform-photographs-at-the-smithsonian/&do=findComment&comment=3163864 . Unfortunately, as far as I can tell,  none of them have survived unlike the Army, Marine, and certain militia models, especially the Excelsior Brigade, New York

Note the external strap, just like the Navy version.

 

Very peripheral support for straw hats is a book published back in 1998 by Bruce Marshall - Uniforms of the Republic of Texas and The Men Who Wore Them.

 

A significant source of uniforms and equipment used by the Texian Navy, Army and Marine Corps came from the the US Navy, Marines and Army,  Some purchased from the same sources, some via surplus sales, and maybe some via five finger discounts.  As did a bunch of the US Navy's sailors.  When LT Edwin Moore left the US Navy to become the Commodore of the Texian Navy, he recruited about 80 other Naval personnel to accompany him to Texas.  

 

The wear of straw hats in the Texian Navy of 1835 to 1845 was likely a carryover from US Navy personnel.

 

All pictures snitched from The Texas Military Forces Museum' website.   All 26 plates are available at https://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/republic/uniforms.htm

 

 

Texian Navy Seaman in Summer Whites

 

According to Mr. Marshall's book, Texian ships maintained a store of "hands of grass" on board for the sailors to weave their own hats as necessary.

 

Texian Navy Gunner with "the standard black straw hat".

 

Texian Midshipman

 

And only peripherally to the navy

 

Texian Galveston Coast Guards

Ran out of likes, actually I sold them. 🤣

 

Like

Excellent and well presented topic as usual sir.

 

An addendum, lest we overlook the later evolution of USN WWI straw hats worn by the women's services

 

Ruth (Woodworth) Creveling, US Navy Yeoman (F), 1917-1920

US National Archives Women's Duty and Service in World War I

 

Photo #: NH 65510
Yeoman (F) First Class Amalie M. Townsley, USNRF
In white summer dress uniform, circa 1919.
She enlisted as a Landsman, Yeoman (F), U.S. Naval Reserve Force, on 8 October 1918 and served at the Naval Hospital, Naval Base, Algiers, Louisiana. Released from active duty on 31 July 1919, her honorable discharge as a Yeoman (F) First Class was issued on 3 January 1921.
Courtesy of Mrs. Amalie M. Kahn, 1968.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
 

Photo #: NH 94772
Chief Yeoman (F) Daisy May Pratt Erd, USNRF
Photographed by Bachrach, 1918, wearing the Yeoman (F) Summer Uniform.
Courtesy of Miss G.H. Erd, 1973.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

 

Photo #: NH 53170
Yeoman (F) Eloise Fort (left) and
Chief Yeoman (F) Lassie Kelly
Pose for a "Tall and Short" photograph, while visiting New York City, May 1919.
They were part of a contingent of 250 Yeomen (F) who were sent to New York from Washington, D.C., to take part in the Victory Loan drive.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

 

Photo #: NH 53168
Yeomen (F)
Surround a bemused sailor, while being entertained by the League of Catholic Women at the Cardinal Farley Club, New York City.  250 of these Navy women, who had done excellent work at Washington, D.C., went to New York to aid in putting over the Victory Loan drive, 8 May 1919.
Note shoulder patch worn by the Yeoman (F) in the left center foreground: an anchor with the initials "Y" and "B".
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Uniform Change 15 apparently covered the hats for the Yeomen.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/womens-uniform-1918.html

 

HATS

267. To be straight-brimmed sailors, of navy-blue felt or white rough flat straw, shaped to conform to following dimensions: Brim 2-3/4" from crown to outer edge. Crown to be 3-3/4" high, 6 1/4" wide at top and 6-3/4" at bottom, 7-3/4" long at top and 8 1/4" at bottom. To be ordered to fit head size of person wearing it.

 

 

Except for the chin strap (that wasn’t actually required by regulations, apparently), the dimensions would have been in conformity with the M1866 USN Officer’s Straw Hat, further verification that it truly had settled into a standard form by then. 

MY guess, re: chin straps, is that the first time the women had to stand in formation outside, a good stiff breeze de-hatted a significant number of the women.  There's a reason women would stab 4 inch to 12 inch long hat pins through their hats into their hair and I've never seen anything where hat pins were authorized uniform accessories. 😁  Women in skirts would not be interested in chasing their hats across the drill field.  Men's visor hats and campaign hats had chin straps and the women probably said "Hey, if the men can have chin straps, so can we."

 

Straw hats are notorious for taking flight if not vigorously jammed tight on ones head.  I've chased mine across fields, parking lots, hay meadows, etc.,  under breezy conditions.

 

Looking closely at the pictures, it appears that the women had their hair stuffed up under the hats, making for relatively loose fits.

20 hours ago, Father V said:

 

First, the best version of the photo is held by the Newport Historical Society and they generously provided me a high quality image for use on the Forum, for which I needed to sign a guarantee and so I will remind the reader that I don’t have the rights to the image and publishing for profit will require separate arrangements with them. Regardless, here’s the link to their image information: https://collections.newporthistory.org/Detail/objects/30758

Courtesy of Newport Historical Society.
 

The officer is Stephen Bleecker Luce, who is important enough to have a Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Luce as well as the usual Navy information, though there’s an error in the combined register.

 

Luce, Stephen B.
Midshipman, 19 October, 1841. Passed Midshipman, 10 August, 1847. Master, 15 September, 1855. Lieutenant, 16 September, 1855. Lieutenant Commander, 16 July, 1862. Commander, 25 July, 1866. Captain, 28 December, 1872. Commodore, 25 November, 1881. Rear Admiral, 5 October, 1885. Retired List, 25 March, 1889.

 

 

Oil on wood, 24 x 12, by Alexander James (1890-1946). Signed by the artist. Painting in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection. Gift of Charlotte Luce Noyes, 1940. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives..

 

Naval History and Heritage Command -->> Stephen B. Luce, Rear Admiral (1827-1917)  with photographs and biographical information.

 

The United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island

 

For those of you who are interested in Stephen B. Luce and his naval career, including the foundation of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island I would recommend the historical monograph 1977 HM 3: Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval Profession by Ronald Spector, and in particular the second chapter - The Old Man of the Sea.

 

 

Personally, I served aboard the USS STEPHEN B. LUCE during the Cold War and our motto was 'Pride, Power, Knowledge'

 

 

We now return you to this excellent treatise of the evolution of USN Regulation Officer Straw Hats...

 

Carry On

Another fascinating dive into a little-known (to me) subject! Actual items! The regulated difference between officer and enlisted hats is very interesting. I don't know much about the enlisted hats, but there is a USNI Proceedings article from 1907 that notes that grass for hats was listed on stores forms from 1855 to 1878. 

 

If I may add a little on the end of the white helmet: Its demise seems to have been related to the white cap. A white cap was first authorized for musicians in 1886. First class petty officers, or chief petty officers after 1893, wore the white canvas hat with their white coat. For officers, a white cap cover was authorized in 1894 (GO 423, 20 Apr 1894), and the white helmet deleted effective 1 Jan 1895. A white cover on top of the blue cap doesn't sound like it would give much relief from the heat, but in the 1897 uniform regulations officers got the option of the white cover on its own over a cap frame. Chief petty officers were authorized white caps, a separate item from the blue cap, in the 1897 regulations. 

 

Somebody must have liked the helmet, though, and it was brought back in the uniform regulations of 8 May 1899. In 1901 it was specified that the officer cap with white cover should look like the blue cap, with the cover not hiding the cap device (GO 48, 6 June 1901). In the 1905 uniform regs the officer's white cap was specified separately, not just as a cap cover. 

 

The helmet was abolished again, for good, in 1908 (Change No 4 to 1905 U. R., 12 Oct 1908). 
 

Thanks for the topic, @Father V!