Bowler hat facts for kids

A bowler hat from the mid-20th century

The bowler hat is a special kind of hat with a hard, rounded top. It's usually made from felt.

This hat was first made to keep people's heads safe from bumps. A story says that a British soldier named Edward Coke had it created in 1849. He wanted to protect his gamekeepers. These gamekeepers rode horses through forests. Their old top hats would often get knocked off by low branches. The new bowler hat was much tougher and stayed on better.

The bowler hat became very popular. It was worn by many people during the Victorian era in Britain. Later, it became popular with middle and upper class people in Britain and the eastern United States. Even today, some Guards officers in Britain wear them as part of their everyday clothes.

Bowler Hats Around the World

Women from the Quechua and Aymara groups in South America often wear bowler hats.

The bowler hat was very popular in the American Old West. Some people even called it "the hat that won the West"! Both cowboys and railroad workers liked it. It wouldn't blow off easily when riding a horse or leaning out of a fast train. Many famous people from the Wild West, like Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, wore them. In America, this hat was often called a derby.

In South America, the bowler hat is called a bombín in Spanish. Quechua and Aymara women have worn them since the 1920s. British railway workers first brought these hats to Bolivia. For many years, a factory in Italy made them for Bolivia. Now, they are made locally. People also wear bowler hats in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.

Bowler Hats in Movies and TV

The bowler hat shows up often in popular culture. You might have seen it in these places:

• It was part of John Steed's outfit in the British TV show The Avengers.
• Oddjob used his bowler hat as a weapon in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
• Famous comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel wore them in their movies.

Images for kids

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  Members of the Orange Order celebrating The Twelfth, Belfast 2011

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  The aviation-pioneering Wright brothers wearing their bowlers in 1910

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  English comedian Stan Laurel took his standard comic devices from the British music hall: the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and nonsensical understatement.

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  Winston Churchill in 1884

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  David Tomlinson as the London banker Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins. Set in early-20th-century London, bowlers were associated with City gents.

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  Alex DeLarge in the dystopian film A Clockwork Orange (1971)

See also

In Spanish: Bombín (sombrero) para niños