# Election Headgear **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018 "2016-07-03T19:12:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RillatonCup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RillatonCup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RillatonCup)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/1 "2016-07-03T19:12:28Z")
Good evening, With the USA gearing up for an election, it seems to be a good time to ask a question which has always puzzled me - in American culture (tv, editorial cartoons, etc) why are straw boaters used as shorthand for an election? I found precisely one article which looked at this (Bow Tie Aficionado) which pretty much shrugged its shoulders as to the reasons why. Is there a reason for wearing boaters during elections? Do people still do it? We don’t really have an equivalent here in the UK - boaters are something old Public schoolboys wear when watching rowing races. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/2 "2016-07-03T19:33:03Z")
Probably because they were associated with the party conventions when candidates were still normally chosen at the convention. That may have started because the conventions often happened in cities with muggy weather in late summer or the dog days of autumn. Or perhaps because a straw boater is cheap hat to hand out adorned with slogans. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/3 "2016-07-05T01:47:33Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Or perhaps because a straw boater is cheap hat to hand out adorned with slogans. This. You can get them cheap (though generally not made of straw any more), in multiple colors, and easily print slogans or candidate names on them. And they come easily adjusted, so you don’t have to worry about getting different sizes, and can be worn by any gender. Plus they’re traditional! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/4 "2016-07-05T02:32:01Z")
They’re the old-timey equivalent of the baseball cap. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/5 "2016-07-05T02:48:37Z")
Looking at Google Books, I found that the phrase “straw boater” doesn’t begin to be popularly used until the late 1920s, with most of the early cites British and many of them remarking that it is coming into style again. The hat itself appears to emerge in the late 19th century, but was just called a straw hat then. It was restricted to light summer wear, and never to be worn with anything black. That makes me think that yabob has it right. The late 19th century was also the era in which newspapers and magazines got the ability to print photographs regularly. A style could be seen by more people more rapidly than before. Conventions were in the heat of summer, in giant builders stifling with the heat of 20,000 bodies. Every account of every convention seems to contain a zillion references to the intolerable heat. A very quick look through Google Images of presidential conventions finds few if any boaters in the pictures until 1912, when suddenly all the pictures have hundreds of men wearing them, as in [this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Democratic_National_Convention#/media/File:Entrance_to_1912_DNC_held_at_the_Fifth_Regiment_Armory,_Baltimore,_Maryland,_June_25-July_2_1912.jpg) and [this one](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/a-look-back-missouri-democrat-nearly-claims-party-s-presidential/article_b4982f61-90b9-5a28-82db-7d27700cc142.html). That was the start of newsreel footage of major events, so maybe that added to the association. Lots of guesswork here, but here’s [something](http://www.word-detective.com/040503.html)that may be just coincidence but is too good not to share. > [@](#): > > To “throw your hat in the ring” is an Americanism dating back to the early 19th century meaning to enter a contest, especially to declare your candidacy for political office. The “ring” in question was originally a boxing ring or other venue set up for fighting. Evidently it was the custom on the American frontier for a pugilist to literally throw his hat into the ring as a way of announcing that he was prepared to take on anyone in the crowd. The first use of the phrase in a political context was probably in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt announced his intention to challenge William Howard Taft for the U.S. presidency: “My hat’s in the ring. The fight is on, and I’m stripped to the buff.” If the image of hat being thrown was that of the ubiquitous boater of 1912, then it’s not surprising that the image stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-headgear/759018/6 "2016-07-05T13:22:21Z")
The answers so far refer to how the convention got started. The OP answered his own question, they are used in media representations because it’s a shorthand. Much like a bear wearing a hat is shorthand for forest fires. Similarly, elephants and donkey don’t really vote or champion candidates.