A wideawake hat is a broad brimmed

felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...

"countryman's hat" with a low crown, similar to a

slouch hat A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat most commonly worn as part of a military uniform, often, although not always, with a chinstrap. It has been worn by military personnel from many different nations including Australia, Ireland, the ...

. A wideawake hat is most commonly seen in dark shades of cloth, such as dark brown or black felt. The brim is fairly wide, and is flat in front and back but with a moderate upturn on the left and right sides. The brim may be asymmetric from side to side, as seen in the

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

portrait, or symmetrical, as seen in the

Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Precursor miller companies In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...

logo. If asymmetric, it is more similar to a slouch hat, which has one side pinned to the crown and the other side allowed to droop. The top is styled flatly, rather than in a bowler curve. A hatband at the base is common. The name may derive from a humorous pun – the hat "never had a

nap A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sl ...

, and never wants one".

History and portrayals

The best-known portrayals of a wideawake hat are two self-portraits by

from 1632. In the United States, wideawake hats have also been known as "Quaker hats", after their adoption by

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

in the 17th century. A well-known depiction of this style is part of the logo for Quaker Oats. It was also associated with the Wide Awake Party, an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Republican Party affiliate organization in the 1860s in the United States. The hat gained in popularity in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

,Ellie Hughes
"What Does Your Hat Say About You?"
''Country Life'', Oct. 23, 2015. and was adopted in the 20th century as part of the dress uniform for some British boy-

scouting Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...

organizations. Photos of

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

(1809–1892) in a wideawake hat are the best-known images of the young Tennyson. "The wide-awake, a broad-brimmed felt hat with a lowish crown, was a, countryman's hat, but there are photographs of Alfred Tennyson looking extremely impressive in one in the 1850s." Joan Nun
"Victorian Men's Fashions, 1850-1900: Hats"
in ''Fashion in Costume, 1200-2000'', 2nd ed., A & C Black Ltd, and New Amsterdam Books, Chicago, 2000 (available a
VictorianWeb
)

Historical figures in wideawake hats

File:Rembrandt van Rijn 176.jpg,

File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 144.jpg, Rembrandt File:Thomas Carlyle on a midnight ramble.png,

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

on a midnight ramble by

Charles Bell Birch Charles Bell Birch (28 September 1832 – 16 October 1893) was a British sculptor. Biography Birch was born at Brixton in south London, the son of the author and translator Jonathan Birch (1783–1847) and his wife Esther (née Brooke). As a ...

File:Portrait of Alfred Lord Tennyson c1860.jpg,

Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

File:Self-portrait by Bernard Walter Evans.jpg,

Bernard Walter Evans Bernard Walter Evans (26 December 1843 – 26 February 1922) was a British landscape painter and watercolourist in the Romantic style, working mainly in Birmingham, Wales, London, Cannes and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Because he used a "h ...

File:William Penn, Peace Movement, Pennsylvania (presentation window) - Frederick Stymetz Lamb, J. & R. Lamb Studio, New York, c. 1908, glass, lead, wood - Brooklyn Museum - DSC09493.JPG,

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

File:Quaker Oats (3092914571).jpg, Quaker Oats Mascot

References

External links

{{Hats Hats 1860s fashion 1870s fashion 1880s fashion Religious headgear