How the Hat Exhibit was Made

What Killed the American Hat 

An exhibit design deconstruction 

This exhibit started with the simple idea of showing off the great and varied collection of women’s hats we had in our storage facility. The richness of our collection made the exhibit an easy win, but it also posed a great question; If hat wearing had been all but mandatory since well before the birth of our nation, why did they all of a sudden disappear?

With the success of shows like Mad Men, this had become a popular question. When we looked a little deeper into it we came up with what we thought was a perfectly reasonable explanation. Fortunately for us, many people from our staff and docent population had lived through the great hat extinction and could give us undeniable proof that we were wrong. Unfortunately, they all gave different reasons.

At this point we had only a couple different choices. We could blame it on fashion in general and have a dull and vague textual component, we could choose the reason we found most likely and have a lot of people tell us we were wrong, or we could invent an interactive exhibit that holds the viewer responsible for deciding who or what was to blame. We chose option three because it seemed like it would be the most fun for everyone, even though it was going to make more work for us.

Keeping with the period of 1940s – 1960s, we looked around pop culture of the era for an iconography that would make a good platform to showcase our collection and invite people to become part of the exhibit. To that end we chose to stage it as a detective’s office from a Crime Noir novel. We came up with the appropriately provocative title, “What Killed the American Hat?” and were off and running.

 

 Now that we were going to put the answer of the titular question into the hands of the audience we needed to figure out a way to give them as much information as they wanted about the forces working to dislodge the hat from its perch as a fashion necessity.

There was a lot of anecdotal information about the change but we were having trouble finding any reliable sources. It wasn’t until we stumbled upon the archive feature in Google’s news search that we found what we were looking for. Just by typing in keywords and choosing a date range we had access to scans of newspapers from around the country and the world concerning hat culture.

In order to display all this information without overwhelming the viewer we created an analog of an internet drill down menu in the form of desktop file folders.

In an attempt to satisfy the curiosity of every viewer we laid out four different levels of information which to look through. The first level was the cover of the folder which had the suspect’s name, a photo, and a general statement of blame. On the inside pages were reproductions of news articles partially highlighted, photos, pull quotes from the articles, and a text block questioning the validity of the claim.

 

These folders were left loose on the desk so that people could pick them up and leaf through them, though the table was labeled as to where the folders should be replaced.

Since we were asking people to make their own decision we had to give them a way to easily register their conclusion. To that end we built a counter out of hand held tally counters and attached it to the side of the desk so that people could just push a button to record their vote.

If people disagree with all the suspects we’ve chosen, we have provided them with a note pad to nominate a different suspect. Once filled out they are slipped into the desk drawer where museum staff goes through them and posts them on bulletin board to the left of the exhibit.

The background of the exhibit is in homage to Saul Bass, a popular graphic artist of the era whose work included the opening credits for Alfred Hitchcock’s films. Our first sense of how the exhibit would be received came while painting the background. The title alone caused groups to stop in front of the empty case to discus and debate their views on the causes of the hat’s disappearance.

To follow the Crime Noir element to its logical conclusion, we built a funereal wreath and wrote an obituary for the American Hat, noting that, “The American Hat was preceded in death by the hoop skirt, the corset, and gloves. It is survived by the miniskirt, women’s pants, and the bikini. Interment will be ongoing at various collecting institutions such as museums and art galleries.”

While the presentation of this exhibit was unorthodox for our museum, it’s been well received by our visitors and docents. It’s inspired a lot of conversation, participation, donations and even a poem by our local Red Hat Society.