What is with those election hats?

[LoZoccolo]

You know, these kind:

http://www.punchstock.com/stock_photography/corbis/2936167/image_11540270.html

I went looking for the history of why people wear these at campaign events but turned up dry.

[TlalocW]

1. Those are called boater hats

They're usually made of yellow straw though. They were popular in the 1880s to 1920s and are part of a traditional barbershop quartet's costumes. It was just a very popular hat amongst all classes for about 5 decades. Maybe as it came cheaper to take photos in the 1900s, there were a lot of pictures of men in boater hats in photos at conventions and political rallies back then, and it just became synonomous with campaigning. I remember a lot of Bloom County cartoons had Opus the Penguin campaigning for vice-president in a boater hat.

In fact, I own an antique one that I won on Ebay. I'm a part time entertainer - magic, juggling, balloon twisting, and my costume is reminiscent of those days - a striped vest and bow tie and boater, to harken back to what a carnival barker might look like from the early 1900s. I have a friend who makes my vests, and for my seasonal ones, she also makes a band that can go around the normal band on my hat to match my vest. I had a star spangled one for my job twisting balloons in a restaurant over the 4th that looked pretty snazzy.

TlalocW

[DNA]

2. Woodrow Wilson

Wilson, who wore a hat like that, threw it into the center ring at a circus performance to announce his candidacy for president. That's where the expression "throw your hat in the ring" comes from, and that's why that particular type of hat is associated regularly with conventions.

[NMDemDist2]

3. wonder if this is how it got started??

From 1831 until the middle of the last century, the phrase "political convention" meant much more than speeches and a roll call of people wearing hats indicative of their state.

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/6482.html