Conical shaped straw hat with chin strap

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A conical shaped straw hat with a chin strap. Red thread is tacked at four points at the top of the hat. Strips of straw are handsewn on the surface of the hat. A thin piece of straw is hand sewn along the edge of the brim. Wood or bamboo is placed at the edge of the brim and wrapped with straw. The interior structure of the hat is made of six pieces of bamboo folded at the top point of the hat creating twelve points of support along the inner frame. Paper is placed behind the bamboo along the top part of the hat. The bamboo is bound with straw along the brim. A red cotton twill braid is tied to either side of the hat at the start of the brim. The two ends of the braid tie at the center.

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