When they say "Butcher's cap", do they refer to a newsboy styled cap? In the 1930s

[cowboy76]

After reading some interviews from old hpt rodders back in the 1930s, it was said that guys would buy white "butcher's caps" because they were cheap, and after they got dirty they'd throw them away and buy new ones.

The only "white" caps I see in photos in the books I have dealin with hot rodding on the dry lakes of California during the 1930s and early 40s are white "Newsboy" caps,....no other caps that are white at all.

The only other caps are beanies, usually wool ones to keep warm in the early morning and late evening hours when they'd camp out there.

Is anyone else familiar with this terminology? I want to know I'm either correct or msitaken here,...and then learn from there on in. Thanks!

 

[The Wolf]

I think they were caps that had no bill, were white and folded flat lengthwise.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[thunderw21]

Like this?

 

[J. M. Stovall]

When I was in High School we wore those kind of paper hats at McDonalds. This was in the late 70's, I'm not sure when they switched to ballcaps.

 

[mingoslim]

Like this?

Yes, this is a later vintage, paper version of the butcher's cap . . . They were actually quite common among laborers at one time . . . Not just butchers, even on construction sites, and such these type of head coverings were used more to keep paint and debris out of ones hair than any other purpose.

In the first couple of decades of the 1900s, if you look at editorial cartoons you will see that the man in over-alls wearing a butcher's cap was the standard depiction for labor and laborers . . . .

 

[cowboy76]

Mingoslim, thank you. I knew it was not the "envelope" hat that you see the kiddies wearing at Johnny Rockets,...

I'm wondering if what I had read that described the cap as a "butcher's cap" was nothing more than a slightly inaccurate description on the story teller's part? Only because of all the white newsboy caps that are pictured??

Now I'm curious to see the "butcher's cap" from that era,..anyone have a pic by chance??

 

[scotrace]

This is an image that is supposed to be from the 1940's:
(from a catalog of butcher's items. This image shows off the block.)

 

[BigLittleTim]

In Rome, Italy, I've seen masons and other laborers wearing the "butcher" style paper cap, only hand-made out of a sheet of newspaper!

-BigLittleTim

 

[Undertow]

Is it possible "butchers' caps" were stiff cloth at one time? And by that I mean as opposed to their paper "envelope" counter parts? I ask because my grandmother's nursing cap was stiff starched cotton but could be easily mistaken for thick cardboard.

 

[BellyTank]

If you look in the book:

"The Birth of Hot Rodding" (The story of the Dry Lakes)-
You'll see a lot of guys wearing fairly big, white caps- I think this is them- cool for the heat of the Lakes. Some of them probably WERE Butcher caps AND this was (became/folklore)probably a generic term for A white Newsboy style cap- I would hazard.
The other hats which seem popular, in the photos, are USN Dixiecups with the brim folded down. A truncated cone.
Take a look.

Belly
Tank


B
T

 

[cowboy76]

If you look in the book:

"The Birth of Hot Rodding" (The story of the Dry Lakes)-
You'll see a lot of guys wearing fairly big, white caps- I think this is them- cool for the heat of the Lakes. Some of them probably WERE Butcher caps AND this was (became/folklore)probably a generic term for A white Newsboy style cap- I would hazard.
The other hats which seem popular, in the photos, are USN Dixiecups with the brim folded down. A truncated cone.
Take a look.

Belly
Tank


B
T

I'm wondering if what I had read that described the cap as a "butcher's cap" was nothing more than a slightly inaccurate description on the story teller's part? Only because of all the white newsboy caps that are pictured??

Yes I own that book....good read but definitley NOT a good book for information on the early years of what we now know as "hot rodding", especially that of the dry lakes,...so the title is very misleading. Good book for Post-WWII hot rodding, but not the birth of it. Wonderful collection of photography!!!

For a VERY good and accurate, well-researched look into the actual early days of hot rodding (since it seems you're very interested) you NEED to pick up "FLAT OUT" by
Al Drake. The book deals with nothing BUT the early days of hot rodding,..Pre-WWII and then the progression of it during the war and after WWII. Also, look for any book dealing with the early days written by Don Montgomery, he was building rods in the 40s, he's still around and meticulous about the details as is Drake!!

As far as the idea of a butcher's cap,....yes, your idea was the same one I had myself,...I'm wondering if the name just caught on as an alternate instead of "newsboy"? I think its very possible.

 

[BellyTank]

You're right, of course- I'm blurring my memories of the book with another book I own.

B
T

 

[John in Covina]

Work caps were ubiquitous back then and there were so many styles of caps with a specific relation to the occupation. BUT it seems to me that those hats like the service side cap made of paper in plain white was what the Butcher at Sunbeam Markets wore when I was little.

I also remember the gas station mechanics wearing a cap that looked a lot like a painters cap way back when too. Ohh the nostalgia!

I remember that the welders had a no brim cloth cap they wore sometimes.

 

[Dave Keller]

In reference to the earliest post about the butcher's cap possibly referring to a newsboy-style cap, bear this in mind:

While a butcher's cap WAS paper as indicated, there was another form of "butcher" back then: The "news butcher."

A "news butcher" was another name for a street seller/vendor of newspapers and they usually worked out of small kiosks along the sidewalks or underneath the stairways at EL stations (as in Manhattan and the other boroughs of NYC that had ELs. I'm sure Chicago was the same way).

So, a butcher's cap COULD be referring to a newsboy cap. All depends on the context of the conversation!

Also, men working at the presses in the newspaper industry wore similar caps they made folded from newsprint. I, too, wore one of the above mentioned paper caps at McDonalds back as counter help during the summer of 1968.

And, the poster referring to the paper cap only made from some form of material . . . . .that would be similar to the military's "overseas" or "garrison" cap, also called something else quite irreverant to women due to its shape. Older military guys (WWII and Korea) will know the phrase to which I refer. (C U next Tuesday!)

Dave Keller

P.S. Welder's cap are still made the same way. Cotton with the slightest hint of a non-stiff brim, about 3/4 inch wide. They were designed to wear under one's welding hood (shield) and to keep sparks out of your hair. I wore one many times when welding. When it got really cold, a zero cap would be worn. This looked like what the aviators from 1920 wore at the colder altitudes and was designed to wear under one's hard hat for warmth. It worked well under your welding hood too when it was cold outside! DK