Until the recent past people wore all types of headwear. Nightcaps, hoods, bonnets, and hats-- the vaiety is mind boggling. Today wearing a hat is relegated to old men and British royality.
As renactors our children frequently get the short end of the stick. They get the make do, make shift, and good enough. They get faux leather Target lace ups because even if anyone reproduced accurate 19 century shoes, no one would spring $140 for them. By the same token, my boys are not getting a $120 reproduction nutria felt bowler to go on their unappreciative heads. Especially since they won't wear it anyway.
I do want the boys to have something on their heads, and this quest has led me to the cloth cap. Its benefits are many: It is inexpensive (unlike a felt hat), made of easily attained materials (see earlier comment) and is crushable. (So is a straw hat . . . but only once.)
Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1862
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/80030456?rpp=20&pg=2&ft=caps&when=A.D.+1800-1900&where=United+States&what=Costume&pos=37
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| Cornelius Krieghoff - 1860 |
Instruction on how to make a cap:
http://theyoungcampaigner.typepad.com/the_young_campaigner/2007/10/make-your-own-m.html
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