Park Rangers Once Wore Pith Helmets: The Sun Helmet in the NPS Uniform

A pith helmet may bring to mind Colonial Britain, World War II soldiers, explorers or safaris, but for a while some park rangers wore one too. This post from the National Park Service’s 50 Nifty Finds series follows a sun helmet in the NPS History Collection: how it got into the uniform, what it was made of and where it was still being worn years after it was dropped.

Sun helmet illustration from the 1940 uniform handbook. NPS History Collection photo.

A hot topic

At the January 1939 superintendents’ conference there was a recommendation for “the use of an aluminum-colored pith helmet in hot or humid climates,” with a sequoia cone ornament on the front. In historical or military areas the choice of helmets, caps or hats was left to the superintendent, provided each area used one type of headgear. The order was issued in April 1939. Aluminum-colored helmets turned out not to be available, so the color became forestry green, and no suitable sequoia cone decoration could be found, so the helmet went without one.

New uniform regulations issued on November 22, 1940, recognized that the standard uniform did not suit every location, and employees at Death Valley National Park were allowed a different one. Sand tan shirts and pants in a cooler fabric replaced the green wool, a tie was still required but the coat (called a blouse) was not, and the forest green sun helmet gave way to a tan one with a silver sequoia cone emblem on the front. In 1950 the Service expanded use of the warm weather uniform, renamed from “sand tan” to “sun-tan,” which regional directors could authorize “in any area administered by the National Park Service in which the summer temperatures are extreme.”

Hawley “Tropper” sun helmet worn by a park historian in 1957, with the black chin strap wrapped on the brim. The sequoia cone is upside down compared with the drawing above. NPS History Collection photo.

A novel hat of novel composition

By the 1930s pith helmets, once worn mostly by European military forces in Africa and Asia, were being worn by civilian colonists as a sun hat in tropical climates, and in the subtropics of the Americas. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S Truman had them. Helmets were originally made from pith, the soft tissue inside the trunk of the Indian Sola tree, and cork became the preferred material of many manufacturers. In the United States, Hawley Products of St. Charles, Illinois, developed a different material for helmets for the U.S. military and the civilian market.

The patent request that Jesse B. Hawley submitted in 1935 described “a novel hat composed of a novel composition” that was light, insulated against heat, impervious to fluids, easy to clean, stiff, tough and durable, could be colored and decorated, and would keep its shape. A second request in 1936 added an adjustable sweat band, which the helmet in the collection has. A 1938 patent describes hats made from a fibrous pulp of wool, cotton, linen, silk, jute, hemp, asbestos, kapok or similar fibers, or any combination, with wax, resin, latex or asphalt added for waterproofing and stiffening, and alum to set them.

The manufacturer’s mark on the NPS sun helmet, with the vivid green of the underside of the hat. NPS History Collection photo.

The helmet in the collection is a Tropper, which was marketed as a tropical helmet. The August 1936 Boys Life advertised the Hawley Tropper as a sun and rain hat for boy scouts, claiming that it insulated wearers from the sun’s heat and was air cooled by a new scientific principle, keeping the head 12 to 25 degrees cooler. Cloth-covered khaki or white versions cost $1.00 and $1.50 respectively.

Staying in the shade

In September 1953 the sun helmet was removed from the uniform regulations. As was often the case, some employees kept wearing them, presumably with their superintendents’ approval: the helmet in the collection was worn at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park by a park historian in the summer of 1957.

Two photographs in the collection show the helmet still in use years after the change. The first, taken at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in 1958, shows a ranger in what appears to be one of the forestry green sun helmets, which should not have been worn since 1940. The second was taken in 1960 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In both, the helmet is worn with the standard uniform.

A ranger guiding visitors through the fort at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, 1958. NPS History Collection photo by Jack E. Boucher.

A ranger talking with visitors along the Mt. LeConte trail at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1960. NPS History Collection photo by Jack E. Boucher.

Sources

• National Park Service, 50 Nifty Finds #5: Keeping Their Cool, from the NPS History Collection series; rewritten in hubnx's own words.