My graduation hat had no elastic band so it was a balancing act. The cap came with the gown you rented. You kept the cap because they couldn't clean it. The robe you turned in. You had to iron it before graduation because it came wrinkled. I believe it was another Josten product. One of their many divisions back then. The tassle hung from your rearview mirror until it disintigrated from sun light.

Now this is the one I was the most curious about because the hat is the most ridiculous one.

@mathewritchie

3 ай бұрын

You have obviously never seen a beer cap.

As a professional hat maker this is my new favorite channel. Thank you for your work and research.

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Given your profession, that's high praise

@vincentperratore4395

3 ай бұрын

I agree that there should be an esoteric type of headpiece (or crown, if you will) to be worn, in order to denote a students' accomplishment at having completed at least the minimum requirements of studies in a chosen field, by tacit approval of his elders and peers, at the time of graduation from a particular institute of learing, that manifests an outward sign of his (or her) scholastic and successful achievement as having completed a set of established goals, relevant to their field of endeavor. You will not be surprised therefore, to realize that my sentiments and decided protocols on this issue pertain solely to those individuals who are worthy of such distinction and praise, having undergone the required studies. Imagine then, my horror and personal chagrin therefore, when I attended the "Graduation Ceremony" of my niece years ago, upon her completion of Kindergarten at the end of the school term, radiantly accoutered no less, in a cap and gown! As far as I'm concerned then, that decided canard on the part of the school administration was merely a blackguard attempt to extort money from the parents of those children, of which they had received a healthy portion!

A few notes on British use, Our mortarboards aren't elasticated so aren't one size fits all. The skullcap can be soft like the US one, or rigid and partly lined like the crown of a bowler hat. The tassel is fuller and connected directly to the top of the hat, not on the end of a string (we dont have that swapping sides or different colour thing). When women were finally allowed degrees in the 19th c they often wore the Canterbury cap rather than the mortarboard, presumably dictated by hair fashions. There' is/was also a rarely seen variation of the Canterbury called the St Andrews cap which is of fuller shape and has a pom pom on top. For doctorates most institutions favour the Tudor bonnet, and here there is more variation in colour, either in the chord around the headband or the whole thing although a few stick with the mortarboard. There was a big expansion in the number of UK universities in the swinging sixties, and some of these went for less traditional forms including stove pipe hats but subsequent redesigns have brought them in line with convention sadly

@WelshRabbit

3 ай бұрын

Zb, yes, I'm in the US and most graduating students rent our academic regalia. Most colleges and universities go for el cheapo (one-size-fits-all) stuff except for the masters and doctoral grads. For my my Juris Doctor graduation, at the time our university prescribed black mortarboards, but at least they were custom measured and of fine quality. They were semi-rigid but would fold down flat. The undergrads did wear the one-size-fits-all mortarboards. For at least the last 2 decades, my university has all the doctoral graduates wear the round Tudor bonnet with short tassel. They are custom sized for the graduate's head.

@uingaeoc3905

2 ай бұрын

I wear a 'Cranmer Cap' as seen being worn by all the sitters for the Holbein portraits of henry VIIIs court. Scottish universities have these a Doctoral caps. They are more subdtantial than the little ladies or choristers cap called 'Canterbury'. However, the top is flat and four cornered and it is easy to dee how this became bigget and stiffer to become the Mortar Board.

@TheCatLady65

2 ай бұрын

Nice. Thanks for including women 🙂

@1258-Eckhart

Ай бұрын

There's also no British tradition of throwing them into the air.

My university, back when each school had its own ceremony, had rental black robes and mortarboards. I think all the tassels were the same color. The colors on the hood denoted the different majors. Two side notes: one of my professors said the flipping the hassle tradition didn't really apply as they got caught by the wind. And the deadline for returning the rented robes was so soon that I barely had time to stay for the school-sponsored reception right after graduation.

I Was Told Once That The Skullcap Part Of The Mortarboard Was Put On The Knee, (When Sitting Cross-Legged,) And The Flat "Board" Part On Top Was Used As A "Desk" To Write Notes On When Sitting Through Studies.

THANK YOU for NOT just only covering the mortar board itself specifically, but for giving us such a wonderful global tour about what OTHER headwear various countries and academies and universities use!!! I loved seeing all that variation!

Again very good video, thanks! In Finland "doctor's tophat" is not used by students. When a student finishes her/his doctoral studies and is promoted to a doctor she/he wears this hat. Mostly these hats are black, but there are also other colours (dark red = law, purple = theology, green = medical (Turku U black), dark blue = art , sky blue = music, grey = military science). This tophat was introduced for the doctor promotion seremonies in 1840. A Finnish doctor also carries a light sword (not theology dr's!), the official "civil sword" during her/his promotion seremonies. The hat can be a bit different from one university to an other, also faculties have their own hat emblems. When a student graduates from high school, she/he usually wears a white cap with black visor, very similar to Swedish on. The cap emblem is a golden lyre. These white caps are trationally worn by all entitled when celebrating the 1st of May - even doctors wear their graduate caps, not tophats! There are also many other graduation related headgears in Finland.

@zbba416

3 ай бұрын

I believe Swedish doctors also do the top hat and sword thing

fun fact: In Italy, the laurel wreath crown (la corona di alloro) is traditionally given to students after graduating college to celebrate academic accomplishments.

@trace13est

2 ай бұрын

Arguably the most beautiful of all graduation headwear 🌱🌱🌱

My maternal grandmother was a milliner in early 20th century London. As a single mother (yes they existed long ago) she worked from home. She and her cousin would go up west in the evenings and look at the hats worn by the rich going to the theatres. Next day she would buy relevant frames fabrics and trimmings and make copies. My mother used to recall her in the evenings standing under the gas light ruching ribbon. They got electricity in 1926 so then she could see sitting down.

When I was a kid back in the. 60s my mom was in the church choir and the common dress for them was a cassock, surplice, and mortar board. It was an Anglican church.

The place, the UK. The year 1968 and I was just starting secondary school (ages 11 to 16/18). Almost all the teachers wore gowns daily. The headmaster, the deputy headmaster and one of the teachers also wore the mortarboards. This was a normal state school, specifically a technical school in a northern shipbuilding town (for boys only btw) and not one of the posh fee-paying schools.

@Steve-GM0HUU

Ай бұрын

I went to a state secondary school in the early 80's (Scotland, UK). All the teachers wore gowns and, for special occasions, mortar-board hats as well. At state primary school in 70s, headmaster always wore a gown but don’t recall him wearing a mortar-board. Of course, kids being kids, nicknamed the headmaster "Batman".😂

Up until the 1970’s women in the church choir wore mortar boards, as women were expected to keep their head covered in church. As a choir director if I asked the choir to move from the rehearsal room to the church for a final run through, the women would scramble to the cupboard to fetch their mortarboards as even in rehearsal they would not enter the church proper without their head covering.

This is such a cool idea for a channel

Until now, I just called it "one of them square hats with that there tassel on it."

@jonc4403

Жыл бұрын

As yore mama allus said, square hats is fer square people.

@robertortiz-wilson1588

3 ай бұрын

Yep

@cliffwestnidge6604

2 ай бұрын

2:51 2:51 Well, now you can be succinct and save yourself some time 😊( all though your way is far more descriptive and poetic)

i like the way a hanging tassel feels on the back of the hand

Stellenbosch University in South Africa seems to be an exception to the Anglophone rule. It has not used hats in decades, if ever. It just consists of a robe and the hood

One I'm looking forward to is the Visor Cap, like the ones the police and the military wear.

@matusfekete6503

Жыл бұрын

I think it's called peaked cap.

Seldom worn in Scotland, even at graduations.

Yikes. Looked up at the shot of my kid graduating. The whole uniform. Almost started to cry…

Je maitrise la langue du Roi Charles à 75 %.... Vivement la version en français, pour les 25 % qui me manquent..... Fort heureusement, vous n'avez pas pris le prononciation du fin fond de l'Arizona ou du Texas... Merci encore.

Thanks a lot for your hard work. I should have known the mortarboard history earlier...That reminded me of my son´s graduation at Lincoln University/UK in 2002.

Much more interesting than I'd expected. And the author did a better than fair job of burning off that "fog of history." (1:08)

Fun fact: Portuguese academic dress does not have a hat specifically because it dessociated from clerical dress! The cape and single breasted frock coat used aren't based on clerical dress, as most think, but rather on Bourgeoisie!

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Interesting!

@Pastel_of_Nate

4 ай бұрын

Yes, while that is true, you are forgetting Coimbra doctoral uniform.

@GazilionPT

3 ай бұрын

​@@Pastel_of_NateThose look more like judge's "togas" than religious garment.

@GazilionPT

3 ай бұрын

Actually, I think the cape was adopted not only for warmth and protection against rain, but for economic reasons. The cape, being made of wool, was not cheap, but it was significantly cheaper than the "batina" (full suit), so they would cover the batina with the cape to protect the batina as much as possible.

@GazilionPT

3 ай бұрын

Ah, in the University of Minho students do wear a hat (a tricorn) but that is a recent thing - the UM was only founded in the 1970s anyway.

❤ LOVE YOUR VIDEOS SIR ! I'M A HAT COLLECTOR MYSELF AND APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION. 😊

Great video, thanks!

Great clip and subject. Wearing the Mortarboard and associated robe and mantle or hood is great fun and a real experience. I've done it twice so far for a Bachelor of Film Production (Arts) and a Master of Moving Image (MMI). We did the 'move the tassel from right over to the left'. It really means a lot to do the graduation ceremony, something to experience. My Undergraduate Mortarboard had the stiff/solid Skullcap which I preferred, which had to be returned. My Master's though was the soft Skullcap which I got to keep, it also folds up flat. I found the stiff/solid one more stable so long as it's the right size.

@trace13est

2 ай бұрын

Couldn’t agree more. Possibly the most fun I had at university was the ceremony itself, and donning the traditional dress was the icing on the cake 🥳🎓

Italian student unions have their own kind of “feluche” resembling a Robin Hood hat. Each faculty has its own colours, like France’s berets

When I graduated, we were told in no uncertain terms that this headwear was a “trencher” and (definitely) not a mortarboard.

Our headmasters at secondary school always wore a mortarboard while on duty. Our graduation mortarboards were rentals so you had to be doubly careful that you could retrieve them after the throw.

Speaking of "pomp and circumstances", it just strikes me that there _is_ a way to make the mortarboard look even sillier: Replace the tassle with a pom-pom on a string. (A neon pink pom-pom, of course. Or a crinkle ball. Anything a cat would love to play with. Maybe even a dead mouse, if you must.)

My high school threatened that if a student tossed his cap he would lose his diploma.

Salut !! J’adore ce que tu fais, c’est super bien réalisé et hyper interessant. Est ce que tu pourrais faire un épisode sur le calot de gendarmerie (aussi appeler bonnet de police). Merci d’avance ! Bonne continuation

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Oui c'est prévu

Fascinating, and well presented. I've always been curious about these caps; thanks for the education! :)

And oh, for the Nordic tradition - the white cap is the summer cap, worn from 1st of May to end of September. In some of the countries, a black winter cap also exists. In Finland, the "student cap" was originally blue, because the student uniform from 1816 was blue. The uniform was ordered to be mandatory in 1852, but it got ditched after 1855. The cap was kept, and Finns slowly moved to Nordic-style white caps. High school graduates wear the cap of the University of Helsinki, because originally high school final exams granted entry. White round exterior is still the most common, though the liner and shape varies by the school and "nation" of the student. My cap is white, seven-pointed, has the Carelian black and red liner, and the engineering student's black tassel - though for the freshman year, the Helsinki student cap was converted to a engineering freshman cap by the addition of a pacifier suspended in a bright-coloured lanyard (and it is traditional to otherwise deface the cap). The top hat I've worn pretty much once after the conferment ceremony. Many colleges have taken to having caps of various colours and also adding tassels.

Such a good series I subscribed.

I notice a WUSTL degree. I also have such a degree in history, no less. I also worked at Olin Library for 25 years where I wore stylishly by season a fedora, Homborg, with an Inverness, or a boater. We should compare notes on the profs we know!

@hathistorianjc

3 ай бұрын

My major advisor was Prof. Okenfuss.

@richegenriether8161

3 ай бұрын

I remember Max as a Russian specialist. Henry Berger was my advisor. I was friendly with Dave Konig, Iver Bernstein, Derek Hurst, Lori Watt, Mark Pegg, and the late Maggie Garb. I graduated in '89 with 2x major in history & anthro. I retired in '18.

My school used our school colors for our cap and gown, blue for boys and white for girls. I remember the soft part just didnt fit my head so i had to pin it down with so many bobby pins.

A interesting education on an educational hat

really fell in love with your channel! hope you make a video on the Tschako one day :)

has a hat collector, this is amazing

Be interesting to learn about the Doctoral Bonnet, too.

Please make a video explaining the Polish Uhlan cap.

Nice bit of Dvorak.

One could do a whole episode on clerical hats. Might be tedious for many, but perhaps mildly entertaining. The history of the mitre alone would be good for laughs given its 90 degree change in orientation at some point. For baseball cap aficionados, wearing one’s cap’s bill to one side has a precedent!

In the US, my wife's PhD robes and my MD robes have the mortar board.

Can you explain what is the name of the hat worn in Holbein's portraits of Thomas More, and Erasmas of Rotterdam, and Thomas Cromwell? I really want to get one like theirs -- i.e., with the ear flaps worn up, but which can be lowered. Have you ever seen quality reproductions of them for sale anywhere (preferably in the USA)?

Ah, you used a picture of the Norwegian Russelue at 5:33. This is a very informal high-school tradition inspired in the early 1900s by the student caps of German students visiting the Oslo area. Norway used to have more formal student caps a well 50 years before that, akin to the other nordic countries, but those to a large extent fell out of fashion due to political turmoil among students of the 1970s. Those formal student caps were all black, with a quite big pulley you would pin on the shoulder. As the russelue coexisted for decades alongside the formal student caps, they also share many visual features. To the point where the russelue can be seen as somewhat of a parody of the proper student cap. In older versions of the high-school graduation tradition, you also had more emphasis on the graduates trying to caricature their teachers, including walking around with a beating-cane.

Very cool explanation. Still a goofy-looking and odd hat.

I like it!

Graduands at Edinburgh University don't wear a hat. The graduation ceremony itself involves being doffed by the "Geneva Bonnet", a soft cloth cap reputedly made from the breeches of John Knox. It probably resembles the shape of the ancestors of the mortar cap. It was never explained to us why any of this made sense!

In Fez ( the oldest university in the World) I was told graduates would have the Quran placed on their heads and the tassel represents a page marker. The mortar board imitates this tradition

For those vexillologists out there: the flags are from Normandy (lions) and Missouri (red, white, blue w/ bears). Of course, you probably already knew that, but I had to look 'em up.

("Edited"should come before "presented" which should come last.)

When I was at Oxford, some 50 years ago, it was believed that the mortarboard was originally a framework for an elaborate mediaeval or renaissance headgear formed by draping the hood over the top of it.

@trace13est

2 ай бұрын

Interesting!

@CLipka2373

2 ай бұрын

An interesting hypothesis indeed, but I find the video's author's explanation far more convincing, being supported by a couple of transitional "fossils".

IIRC, Cambridge University colour-codes the hats for the level of degree, while a stole or scarf indicates the field.

@PhilMasters

3 ай бұрын

You’ll very rarely if ever see mortarboards in British universities these days, even at graduations. I think they died out years ago -the teachers at my school (traditionalist in a lot of ways) didn’t have mortarboards even in the 1970s. The *gowns* are what are coded by colour and trim details.

@Skorpychan

3 ай бұрын

@@PhilMasters My sister graduation from Cambridge about 15 years ago, and I think I remember mortarboards there. Cambridge is extremely old-school, though.

@PhilMasters

3 ай бұрын

​@@SkorpychanThere may be some around with people who want to try too hard, but there were none visible when I picked up my degree 40+ years ago, and I don't think I've noticed any when I've been in the town on degree days ever since. They're certainly not required.

@alistairshaw502

3 ай бұрын

No, it doesn’t. Both Cambridge square caps (called mortar boards Somewhere Else) and doctors’ bonnets (some variety in shape) are black. The chancellor gets gold trim.

For information, at Aberdeen University ( the only university founded by a Borgia pope) , thei headgear is called a 'trencher'.

I still have my 42 years old faluche with the green ruban

The "Board" On My High School Graduation Mortarboard Was Made Of Soft Foam So It's Corners Won't Hit Your Eye When You Tossed Them Up And It Came Down!

Est-ce que le mot mortarboard a un rapport avec le mot mortier qui est le nom du chapeau des magistrat ? D'ailleurs, pourriez-vous nous faire une vidéo sur ce chapeau.

@CLipka2373

2 ай бұрын

The word "mortarboard" derives from a tool to work with mortar (as in "brick and mortar", i.e. the stuff you put between bricks). This word "mortar" in turn derives from latin "mortarium", denoting the alchemist's/chemist's/apothecary's mortar (as in "mortar and pestle", i.e. the tool you use to crush and grind down stuff to a powder, the relation probably being that to make mortar you originally needed to crush limestone, for which a mortar and pestle might have been used). This is without doubt the same root as the French word "mortier" (both as in "mortier et pilon" and "brique et mortier"). It also appears that the "mortier" as a headdress shares the same design roots as the "mortarboard" headdress. However, whether the word "mortier" for said headdress derives from the English word "mortarboard", or whether it derived separately due to the fact that some variants of the "mortier" hat were shaped like some mortars (as in "mortier et pilon"), would need further research. Maybe both happened, with "mortarboard" having been "imported" into French language from English, but the word "mortar" in there having been re-interpreted from the "brick and mortar" meaning to the "mortier et pilon" meaning, and the "board" portion discarded. I find it also conceivable that a common ancestor of both styles of hats, which might have looked somewhat like a mortar (as in "mortar and pestle"), used to be referred to as "mortar" and "mortier", respectively, and that this ancestral form evolved separately into both modern forms, with the name of the anglican form having humorously been altered from "mortar" to "mortarboard" as a pun on both the traditional name and the modern form's similarity with the construction worker's tool. (This might even make sense to explain the extremely ridiculous shape of the modern "mortarboard", in that the name "mortarboard" may have originally been applied to way less silly designs, but might subsequently have driven design changes to make it look even more like you're actually wearing a worker's tool on your head.)

Clergy were the ones who filled the universities. The bittera style transformed from a sift cap to the mortarboard - both are still used at my alma mater Oxford - soft for women.

My high school graduation was in 2020, we didn’t get a real graduation

You should make a video about Chinese Emperors "Mortarboard" hat with 12 strings in front edge, and 12 strings in back edge. Which would be Han Chinese Emperial costume (but not Qing Dynasty, or the Mongols ).

The 5 sided hat in Indonesia would (I assume) be a tip of the hat to the official national philosophy of "pancasila" - the 5 principles.

It locks lik the hat whord by lancers

Je serais tenté de traduire mortarboard par "taloche"... Parfois, elles sont méritées.

Ok ,well originally it was worn with cloak by apprentices in the stone masonry world and at the completion of one’s apprenticeship it was thrown away ps it was used to carry mortar the board was larger.

2:11 you show the german "Bundesverfassungsgericht". The robes and hats worn by them were designed exclusively for them. The design they finally chose (amongst 5) was designed (and manufactured) by costume designers at the Staatstheaer Karlsruhe (the city, where the Bundesverfassungsgericht is located). So this special design is rather artistic than linked to a tradition.

Do the Boeotian helmet (Alexander the Great’s cavalry helmet). It’s pretty odd but beautiful!

Great video but the picture you showed was not a mortar board but a hawk. Thanks

morrtar boards make me immediately think of Poindexter from the 1950s Felix The Cat cartoons

My higher doctoral hat is called a 'John Knox hat' (although I have since renamed it to 'Thomas More hat' - not being a fan of the ghastly old misogynist.)

I won't throw mine very high either xd

When we were preparing to receive PhD we were all looking forward to wearing our "puffy hats"

When i finish my uni and high school, all we did was rent the robes and hats out, so we could not make it perosnal

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

In my college, we rented the robes, but the hats were ours to do with as we pleased. (I made a video with mine over a decade after the fact, in this occurence :p )

Y a t-il un lien avec le chapska polonais, lui aussi carré?

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Au delà de la forme, pas vraiment, ils ont des origines différentes

@williamshortfilm5818

Жыл бұрын

@@hathistorianjc D'accord, merci!

Mine fell off as I was collecting my diploma.

you should do a history of the shako

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

It is planned.

@Average_GI_Joe

Жыл бұрын

@@hathistorianjc YES

a cap i will never get propably considering my performance :(

In Scotland it is not part of the academic dress, we are forbidden to wear into the ceremony. It has to be carried.

@trace13est

2 ай бұрын

Interesting!

The colour of the tassle refers to your _field of study?!_ Well, that does throw some light on few awkward, er... _'misapprehensions'._ Here was me thinking they referred to one's kinks in bed.

I would say: Hat's off for the great video - but that does not seem appropriate! :)

the german hats at 5:26 look very similar to german WWI caps

Dear Bard: Was the mortarboard hat ever used in Germany? No, the mortarboard hat, the familiar square graduation cap you might be thinking of, is not traditionally used in Germany. While graduates in Germany do celebrate their achievements with ceremonies, they typically wear a different kind of hat. And, that's from me personally, graduate students don't even wear their fraternity's/sorority's cap. They come as they are, only wearing a business suit.

Hey Ho! This writer seems to recall some 19th military hats of this shape

Composed of, or comprising, or consisting of, but not comprised of.

I have and mortarboard hat in my bedroom closet.

I find it fascinating that the same song that we Americans play solemnly at graduations, "Pomp and Circumstance", the English sing rowdily at football/soccer matches.

@CLipka2373

2 ай бұрын

The English (much like the Germans) sing _anything_ at soccer matches. Rowdily, of course. As long as it's a different song than the one sung by the opposing team's fans. Contrary to popular belief, a soccer match is not won by the team that scores the most goals - it's won by the fans that can sing the loudest. And most rowdily.

Composed of, or comprising, but not comprised of. Or use consisting of.

It makes me a bit sad, that I didn't get one when graduating... We only make mocking cardboard versions...

Wasn't the "Mortar Board" worn by Roman Judges? I have seen drawings of Romans in 8 sided mortar board hats. But I don't think they are ancient drawings, but speculation.... IMHO

Why do judges wear black robes ?

Anyone else think - and struck by the irony - that the mortarboard is unchallenged #1 on the list of sumbest-looking hats ever invented? In my mind, even a dunce cap exudes more air of learnedness than this silly head cover: That one, by virtue of being pointy, can at least be interpreted as being related to a wizard's hat. The mortarboard has none such redeeming quality. Actually the total opposite: Everything about it screams, "I am completely useless; no part of me makes any sense whatsoever; I can't even decide whether I want to be round or square; and that tassel thing is even actively distracting and getting in the way." It also doesn't help that it looks like the literal rendition of a German expression, "ein Brett vorm Kopf haben" - literally "to have a boaard in front of one's head" - used when someone is too daft to (figuratively) see something most obvious. (Then again, the mortarboard also screams, "I am utterly useless at manual labor; look, I found this construction worker's tool, and the only thing I know to do with it is wear it on my head." So I guess at least in that sense it's a reasonably honest piece of clothing, at least for the stereotypical academic...)

Dommage de ne pas avoir mentionné la penne belge que j'ai pu rencontrer ça et là lors de soirées d'échange (je fais partie d'une société d'étudiant helvétique portant couleurs).

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Je ferai peut-être une vidéo plus précise sur les autres coiffes dans l'avenir...

Good video. But distracted by the tassel waggling around.

@hathistorianjc

Жыл бұрын

Think of how I felt filming this, with it tickling the side of my face :p

@KingfisherTalkingPictures

Жыл бұрын

@@hathistorianjc LOL! I DO enjoy your videos.

I may just consider Finland for my Ph.D. lol

In Russia those are associated with mages and philosophers.

And to think, they said the Atlantic Accent was extinct.

Hum, a voir la photo, je dirais que c'est une faluche alsacienne sur la photo.

A very creepy Masonic symbol. Love your channel.