Feather Bonnets

[Benning Boy]

I'd like to know how the tall black feather bonnets are put together. I'd especially like to see a series of photos or something illustrating the construction of these. Can anyone help? I'm not having much luck.

Also, Wikipedia says the development of the bonnets over time may have been influenced by the exposure of Highland regiments to the Indian feather bonnets. That, to me, is way off base. Although all Indians used feathers as ornamentation, only those of the Great Plains region of North America routinely used anything remotely similar to a bonnet. Plains Indian culture as we know it began to develop in the 1700s and didn't reach full fruition until about the time the Plains tribes were finally subjugated in the 1880s. I'm unaware of any Highland units ever having seen service on the Plains, either in what is now the United States, or in Canada. And Certainly, Highland regiments departed the US immediately on conclusion of our revolution, at a time before the "war bonnet" as it's often called, had fully developed. I don't see how Highlanders could have been influenced by American Indians. Just to cover one more base, feather bonnets, war bonnets, didn't get taken up by other tribes, outside the Plains region, much before the mid-20th Century, as the Pan Indian movement began to take hold.

What are your thoughts?

[plaid preacher]

Hey David. Afraid I can't help you with how they are put together, short of saying my understanding is that they are feathers over a wire frame.

I do believe you may have the wrong Indians, however. I suspect the influence, if indeed there was any, was from the Indian subcontentent; which was part of the British Empire and saw many units posted there. The influence cuts both ways, as I believe both the Indian and Pakistani army have pipe bands, of the highland tradition.

[Benning Boy]

Thanks, Robert, I'll have to pursue that angle. There just doesn't seem to be anything online that actually provides information on the construction of a Highland father bonnet, except to say they are put together over some kind of frame. I'm just curious.

[Father Bill]

Sounds like you'll have to start bending coat hangers!

[plaid preacher]

...and perhaps eating crow. Oh wait, I think that has a different meaning.

[plaid preacher]

David, here is a picture of the inside of a bonnet that I plucked from http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/fo...owtopic=164105 . There may be more of the history in this discussion. Interestingly, the profile from the bottom looks remarkably like that of a Woolsey helmet. BTW ... pun intended.

[Pleater]

Sir Rex Hunt died today. He was the former governor of the Falkland Islands who wore his feathered hat, and the rest of his 'full fig' uniform to meet with the officer commanding the invasion. He declined to shake hands.

English border morris sides wear top hats adorned with pheasant feathers and flowers - though they are all revival sides, the tradition died out, and just what feathers were actually worn is uncertain - they are not described in the written accounts of the kit the old sides wore.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Dale-of-Cedars]

Sir Rex Hunt died today...
Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Minor correction, he died 'this day', that is November 11th, but in 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Hunt_%28governor%29

[Pleater]

Minor correction, he died 'this day', that is November 11th, but in 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Hunt_(governor)

Hmm - I thought that was what I wrote - maybe I ought to have a word with the auto correct program I enabled recently - but thank you for the non automatic correction. I remember the TV re ran an interview they did with him about the surrender where he described there being a few minutes pause in the proceedings and he decided to put on his official uniform with the hat full of feathers - I thought then, echoes of 'Carry on up the Khyber' -

Anne the Pleater:ootd:

[Dale-of-Cedars]

In googling Rex Hunt I also found the complete film on the invasion that includes the full-dress feathered hat incident, and watched it with the Kelda: