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Hat-titude

by Anne Motto, F.M. Kirby Curator of Collections
June 10, 2025

Utilizing everything from ostrich feathers to sequins to entire birds, a woman’s hat, long an indispensable accessory, completed ensembles in a variety of eye-catching ways. Within MCHS collection is an eclectic array spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the most elegant (and enormous) date to the first decades of the 20th century when department stores increasingly became the place to cap off a lady’s wardrobe. Below is a sampling of the finest and most fanciful. 

 

B. Altman & Co., Fifth Avenue, 34th & 35th Streets, New York

 

This hat was owned by a member of the Crane-Hone family, like Julia Crane Corning or Alice Castleman Hone.

 

Lord & Taylor, New York

 

This hat was a part of a large donation of 19th and 20th century hats generously given to MCHS in 2018.

 

Simpson Crawford Co., Sixth Avenue, New York

 

This hat was a part of the large 2018 donation.

 

This unique hat was also part of the 2018 donation.

 

Arnold Constable & Co., Fifth Avenue, New York

 

This hat was also part of the 2018 donation.

 

Known internally as “the Scottie dog,” this humongous hat was donated to MCHS in 1989.

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