Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - March 27, 1983
by LaVonne Waldron
Vigo County Historical Society

Twelve-inch hat pins were dangerous

This week we are featuring an elaborate hat from the turn of the century, chose from the collection of the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley at 1411 South Sixth Street.

The hat has a large black felt brim covered with 25 layers of ruffles, shading from the palest of pinks to deep magenta. Four silk flowers in variegated pinks trim the front. Schiffli lace ruffles peek from beneath the brim of the back.

The hat was worn by Mary Alic Warren.

About 1905, ladies began fashioning hairdos of voluminous quantities of hair. Longer and longer hat pins were necessary to fasten the elaborate hats to hairdos created with this quantity of hair.

The dainty belleck porcelain hat pin holder pictured holds a selection of jeweled hat pins which vary from 12 inches in length. Hat pins of this length were considered dangerous to the passerby on the street.

In 1913, laws began to be passed to prohibit the wearing of hat pins without protected points. As one pictures a policeman informing a fashionable lady wearing a 12-inch hat pin that she is under arrest, one feels sorry for the policeman.

The war against hat pins continued until bobbed hair became fashionable after World War I and they were no longer necessary.

These dangerous hat pins are securely locked in a glass case and are currently on display at the museum.

The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.