Project Summary:

We recently treated a series of seven 19th-century, Philadelphia fireman’s parade hats. These stovepipe hats were worn by firefighters while on the job and during annual town parades to distinguish their companies. The hats are generally constructed from felt (often beaver hair) and then hand painted with logos and elaborate designs. Prior to treatment, all of them were covered in layers of aged and discolored natural resin varnish that greatly obscured not only the images and design elements on the hats, but also hid many of the hats’ original base colors, which ranged from rich red to deep blue to dark emerald green, depending on the hat maker. There were deformations in the hats’ overall shape, losses in the tops and brims, and areas of weakness that needed to be stabilized.

After carrying out extensive solubility tests, the degraded coatings and discolored retouching was reduced. The deformations in the brims were humidified and gently reshaped. Losses were filled using a polyester felt, coated and painted to match the original colors.