Hat, raffia with silk flowers, c. 1910s, front view

c. 1910s. Raffia hat with a brim and domed crown, made of narrow braid overlapped and machine-sewn together.
The brim is oval, wider at the sides than the front and back. The back is turned up and sewn to the hat and the edge of the brim is reinforced with wire. The crown is constructed in one piece, shaped by controlling the coiling of the overlapping raffia braid.
A 3.8 cm / 1.5 in. white grosgrain ribbon hatband is attached at the seam of the brim and crown. Stitched to it are fabric green rose leaves with wired veins, pink fabric roses, and one dried thistle flower. Remnants of pale pink tulle or net, once wrapped around the base of the crown, are below the flowers at the left side and back. One large fabric rose and two leaves are sewn to the turned-up brim in back. A 19.1 cm / 7.5 in. long hat pin pierces the crown above the rose; it has a 7.6 cm / 3 in. long wooden head wrapped in chenille thread and a 11.4 cm / 4.5 in. long pin.
The brim is lined with a pale pink charmeuse silk. The crown is lined with a cream glazed cotton basted to the silk at the seam of the crown and brim and gathered along a thread at the top of the crown. Silk chiffon lines the very top of the crown. Machine-sewn with hand-sewn finishing.

The Irma G. Bowen Historic Clothing Collection digital catalog was produced by the UNH Library Digital Collection Initiative, supported in part by a grant from the Mooseplate program and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Additional funding provided by the E. Ruth Buxton Stephenson Memorial Fund.

Photography copyright, Astrida Schaeffer.