Unusual Hat

[MarkTK36thIL]

I'd like someone to provide feedback as to what type of hat this is. Someone suggested forage cap. If it is, it's the ugliest one I've ever seen.
Charles Styles
Co. A 36th IL Inf.
Early war image -circra Aug-Oct '61.

[GenuineInformation]

Re: Unusual Hat

To me, it looks like a very low-crowned and short-brimmed porkpie hat with the edges curled up on either side, and some sort of metal device affixed to the front.

[ScottCross]

Re: Unusual Hat

I agree with Joseph, a felt hat with the brim turned up all the way around. I have seen these hats being worn by children in images from the 1860s.

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: Unusual Hat

Any chance you can find one of those pics on your hard drive at all Scott?

[ScottCross]

Re: Unusual Hat

I found three examples that can be viewed on our website. These are not as extreme as the one that you posted, but have a rolled brim all the way around. I have seen ones more like the one you posted, but out of a collection of 60,000 photographs, only 16,000 of them have been scanned and cataloged. We have four large photographic scrapbooks, and I recall seeing a hat like this in one of them, but there are almost 3,000 images in those scrapbooks and it would take me hours to go through them all.

http://oshkosh.pastperfect-online.com/20004cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=DF21F5F9-23F3-4B81-AC4A-828674540700;type=102

http://oshkosh.pastperfect-online.com/20004cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=4E9D05AA-0713-4B41-85C9-679064372655;type=102

http://oshkosh.pastperfect-online.com/20004cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=BD4CC5CF-F02E-4263-B0FC-572527655310;type=102