Everyone knows I just love history and go down rabbit holes fairly frequently. I just love finding little-known things from the past and more often than not, I build a story around them. So I subscribed to Historyfacts.com and they email me every week with something historical.
Do you know how Abraham Lincoln used his top hat? This president was 6’ 4” and this top hat added nine or ten more inches which made him look like a giant. But this accessory was the rage in his day and the majority of men wore them. Even tall ones.
Back to the subject. How did Lincoln made good use of his hat? He stored papers in it. He kept all sorts of different, and sometimes important, documents on top his head inside his hat. And when he was in meetings with his generals, he’d often throw the papers at them to make a point.
Lincoln also kept correspondence in his hat. In 1850, he received a letter from politician Richard S. Thomas and stuffed it inside his hat, going about his business. Then he went out and bought a new hat, putting the old one aside. Weeks went on before he remembered the letter and finally had to apologize to Thomas for not replying sooner.
Maybe a lot of men had the problem of using their hat for a file cabinet! Any kind of document could be stored on top of the wearer’s head. So…the writer in me immediately conjured up a man getting a marriage license and putting it in his hat then forgetting about it. Or any correspondence that needed immediate attention. Or even food. So funny!!
Why haven’t I used this???? It’s a goldmine. The scenarios are endless.
But back to Lincoln. His hat once saved him from an assassination attempt when a gunman shot and the bullet went through the president’s top hat. Secret Service agents found his hat lying in an intersection and were able to discover the position where the gunman fired. I don’t know if they ever knew exactly the gunman’s identity or not. The article didn’t say.
Lincoln had to give many speeches and he stored them in…you guessed it. His top hat. So he’s at the podium, takes off his hat and gets his speech out. Then when he finishes, he stuffed it back in his hat and everyone had a good laugh. True story.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I never knew this about our tallest president.
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Question: Have you ever run across something fascinating, maybe some historical fact or something you read in a book? Or how about this. Think of a funny scenario that should be in a book involving a top hat. I’m going to give away a copy of my Christian historical Love’s First Light, either ebook or print, to one commenter.