Note the crease in this campaign hat

[deanglen]

I got most of these shots off e-bay in the Militaria-Spanish-American War section, since the copyright has lapsed on them, I regularly check to see what new shots I can find. That time period is truly under-appreciated and There are many parallels to our present time, when our nation found itself and a role in the world. The hat materials may have been wool felt, but I suspect more likely fur, mthatter would probably know for sure. I have yet to handle an original, I only know them from photos. To me, they seem the ideal "beater", not too formal. not to over-defined as "western" for guys like me who live east of the Mississippi. I think they make a perfect compliment to a nice dress fedora collection

PLUS... the heroic association with the Rough Riders is dramatic, and inspirational. And I must say I envy those of you who have ancestors who wore the genuine article, thanks for your family album pics, Big Man, wuould love to see anyone else's, as well. Note the variety of headgear in the shot above. The invidualism of it appeals to me, the image of Americans, ethnically diverse and energetic, brave and dashing, dirty and triumphant! Bully! Bully! As far as the specifics on the pictures, I neglected to record the facts about them, my interest was in the hats, but anyone who has some of the stereopticon sets they came from would have at least a general bit of info about them

 

[deanglen]

They may look fedora-like, but sometimes they look very "western" ,case in point:

 

[Joel Tunnah]

deanglen,

where did you source the ribbon for your 1898 hat attempt?

I have a Miller "Raider", open-crown model on order, and I think that ribbon width and bow style might look good on it.

Joel

 

[deanglen]

Joel, I bought some 5/8" grosgrain on line from a google search on grosgrain ribbon suppliers, and I don't remember the name of the place but it's not too expensive, probably because it is not of the same quality as vintage ribbon, and I chose the closest shade to a tan or neutral color similar to the ribbon color on these vintage examples

 

[Joel Tunnah]

Well, it looks good from here. Was it schiffribbons.com?

 

[deanglen]

Actually the ribbon on that hat was a 7/8" grosgrain, and I modeled the bow after one I saw on Dirty Billy's site, the first image he offers, here below:

But subsequent photo research indicated a very dissimiliar bow and a narrower ribbon, so the shot of my hat I posted I consider to be somewhat inaccurate, which considering I was trying to imitate Dirty Billy's work, an established authority and master of his craft, I simply imitated other materials I found, such as these:

So...I ordered 5/8" ribbon, redid the bow, and I hope to post a shot or two if I only can get access to a digital camera to get the pictures. I really think that Miller hat will make a great campaign hat, new ribbon, bow and all! Can't wait to see how your goin to bash it...there are so many options! Maybe someone with the equipment could add the triple brim edge stitching you see in the photos...for that extra touch of authenticity! Oh, and it wasn't Schiffribbons, but only because I hadn't found that site at the time, but looks good to me!

 

[deanglen]

If anyone's interested, and I don't know why I didn't think of this before, you can order reproductions of Span-Am War campaign hats at this site, or enhancements like screen vents, seen in the photos in this thread. They do indicate that the hats have only two rows of stitching. I suppose I could have ordered one, but it was much more fun to try my own attempt at replicating them, plus I don't have unlimited funds and simply enjoyed trying my hand at producing them.

http://www.ushist.com/wardrobe.htm

 

[Naphtali]

On pre-DI campaign hats, an additional facet/feature is that the hat was sometimes folded hemispherically along its front-rear axis. I have no idea why.

When I was a child, I used to play with twins who lived next door to Colonel Townsend Whelen, author of MR. RIFLEMAN and bazillions of books and articles. His hat, of the era, included the fold I try to describe.

 

[Joel Tunnah]

Unfortunately, those USHIST repros are wool.

 

[deanglen]

Sorry about them being wool, actually Dirty Billy offers some that look better to me, though he indicates Roosevelt had a grey one, which I didn't know, anyway, here's the shot:

 

[feltfan]

If anyone's interested, and I don't know why I didn't think of this before, you can order reproductions of Span-Am War campaign hats at this site, or enhancements like screen vents, seen in the photos in this thread.
http://www.ushist.com/wardrobe.htm

I just called. Unfortunately they no longer stock the
screen vents. Their supplier wants them to order in
quantities of 2000. I need two for a project hat. If
anyone has a couple, please let me know.

They do have "Bracher ventilators", which are tiny 1/2 inch
vents with fan blades. Hand machined and $30 a pair.
Cool as they are, I'm not sure I'm ready to spend that much
for something that may or may not work and may be touchy
to install. But I might...

 

[deanglen]

I wonder if you could find a way to remove a couple of the screen vents from one of the many cheap summer hats that abound and install them in your hat. I was considering doing this when I thought about adding screen vents to my campaign hat, but I was hesitant...so I didn't.

 

[deanglen]

I have a cap with two screen vents that I would be glad to try and pull out for you and send them to you if you want to try using them. Let me know, and I'll get right on it!

 

[feltfan]

I have a cap with two screen vents that I would be glad to try and pull out for you and send them to you if you want to try using them. Let me know, and I'll get right on it!

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it.
But first I'm checking with a costumer I know.

I didn't realize these aren't simply historical reproduction.
It appears a lot of caps and cloth hats use these items today.
There has to be a supplier who will sell fewer than 1800 at a time.

I must admit I'm getting tempted by the wacky Bracher ventilators, too.

 

[deanglen]

Aren't those Bracher ventilators interesting? What a solution to the cooling problem. I wonder how well they work. But...thirty bucks a pair?
Hmm-m-m-m.