Wideawake hat

A wideawake hat is a broad brimmed felt "countryman's hat" with a low crown, similar to a slouch hat. 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 portrait, or symmetrical, as seen in the Quaker Oats 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/nz-slouch.htm|title=NZ Slouch|publisher=Digger History|access-date=1 August 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920015848/http://diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/nz-slouch.htm|archive-date=20 September 2010|df=dmy-all}} The top is styled flatly, rather than in a bowler curve. A hatband at the base is common.[http://hatguide.co.uk/wideawake-hat/ "Wideawake hat"], HatGuide, last visited July 31, 2020. The name may derive from a humorous pun – the hat "never had a nap, and never wants one".{{Cite book|last=Hotten|first=John Camden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kfo3AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA246|title=A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words|date=1860|publisher=John Camden Hotten|language=en}}

History and portrayals

The best-known portrayals of a wideawake hat are two self-portraits by Rembrandt from 1632.

In the United States, wideawake hats have also been known as "Quaker hats", after their adoption by Quakers 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 Republican Party affiliate organization in the 1860s in the United States.See, for example, the [https://www.hats.com/bollman-collection-1860-s-wide-awake.html "1860s Bollman Collection Wide Awake"] (last visited July 31, 2020).

The hat gained in popularity in the Victorian era,Ellie Hughes, [https://www.countrylife.co.uk/country-life/what-does-your-hat-say-about-you-78581 "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 organizations.Scouting for Boys, Robert Baden-Powell (1908). Photos of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (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 Nunn,[http://www.victorianweb.org/art/costume/nunn22.html "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 at [https://victorianweb.org/ VictorianWeb].)

Historical figures in wideawake hats

File:Rembrandt van Rijn 176.jpg|Rembrandt

File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 144.jpg|Rembrandt

File:Thomas Carlyle on a midnight ramble.png|Thomas Carlyle on a midnight ramble by Charles Bell Birch

File:Portrait of Alfred Lord Tennyson c1860.jpg|Alfred Lord Tennyson

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

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

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