The pava is the traditional hat used by sugar cane cutters, coffee pickers, and other agricultural workers. It is emblematic of the jíbaro (a Puerto Rican from the countryside) and the rustic traditions of the island's folkways. The pava is so closely associated with the notion of authentic Puerto Rican culture that when Luis Muñoz Marín founded the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in 1938, the party adopted the pava, as its symbol.
Description (Spanish)
La pava es el sombrero tradicional que usan los trabajadores del campo, tales como los cortadores de caña o los recolectores de café. Es emblemático de los jíbaros (puertorriqueños del campo) y de las costumbres rústicas de la isla. Se relaciona tan estrechamente con la cultura puertorriqueña que cuando Luis Muñoz Marín fundó el Partido Demócrata Popular (PDP) en 1938 el partido adoptó la pava como símbolo.
This “papale” style hat is a factory made cloth hat that resembles the earlier Hawaiian “papale” hats worn by paniolo cowboys prior to the mid-1880s. The hats made prior to the mid-1880s were often weaved by a female relative out of dried leaves from the native pandanus tree. Currently papale weaving is a rare and dying art form, which is uncommon skillset. The cloth hat worn by Masatsu “Masa” Kawamoto shows the effect of industrialization on Hawaiian society after the 1880s. The hat was an essential piece of the paniolo cowboy’s clothing because it was used as protection against the different weather conditions that cowboys experience.
US Army Campaign hat worn by Irving Berlin in the 1943 musical comedy film This is the Army. The dark brown wool hat was likely first issued to Berlin when he was drafted into the United States Army in 1917. The already-famous songwriter was assigned to the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton in Yaphank, on New York’s Long Island. While there, he composed a musical review titled Yip Yip Yaphank, a patriotic tribute to the United States Army to be staged with an all-soldier cast with proceeds supporting a camp service center. The show was a local hit and quickly moved to Broadway, where it also found success. Berlin himself performed the show’s hit song, “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” In 1942, to support the Army Emergency Relief fund during World War II, Berlin staged a Broadway revival of Yip Yip Yaphank, now retitled This is the Army. The show was a success in New York and a traveling production toured other US cities from 1943-1945. Berlin again appeared in this uniform to perform “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” in both the stage production and the 1943 Warner Brothers film adaptation.
The dean of American popular song, composer-lyricist Irving Berlin wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” Born Israel Beilin in Tyumen in what was then the Russian Empire in 1888, he was one of eight children brought by his parents to New York to escape discrimination, poverty, and violent programs against Jewish people in Russia. After his father died in 1901, Irving worked to survive, selling newspapers, waiting tables, and plugging songs. Berlin’s first hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” became a sensation in 1911; three years later, his first work of musical theater, Watch Your Step, cemented his reputation. He wrote twenty-one Broadway scores, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946), which featured Ethel Merman singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Berlin also wrote seventeen film scores, including Top Hat (1935), Holiday Inn (1947), and Easter Parade (1948).
Hat worn by Larry Hagman in the role of J.R. Ewing on the television series Dallas, which aired on CBS from 1978-1991. The light brown felt cowboy hat has a feather hatband and leather band inside.
One of the longest running hour-long television dramas in American history, Dallas revolved around the lives of the often feuding Ewing family and their oil company in Texas. The show originally focused on the wedding of Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes, but later centered on the greedy and corrupt oil tycoon, J.R. Ewing. The third season's cliffhanger finale left the entire nation wondering who shot J.R., and when the fourth season premiered, it became one of the highest viewed television episodes in history thanks to the millions of people who tuned in to find out the answer to that question.
