Acoonskin cap is ahat fashioned from the skin andfur of araccoon. The headwear became associated withEuropean Americans occupying lands on the United States borders with Indigenous nations in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The cap became highly popular among boys in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia in the 1950s.[1] The original cap consisted of the entire skin of the raccoon including its head and tail.[citation needed]
The coonskin cap is an iconic cap associated with the early American frontier. Originally designed by the Native American peoples of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia; the style was later adopted by early pioneers to the area following the decades after the American Revolution. Individuals associated with the headwear generally includeDaniel Boone,[2]Davy Crockett,Meriwether Lewis, andJoseph L. Meek. Early media such as the songThe Hunters of Kentucky helped introduce the coonskin cap in the popular culture of American psyche.[3]
PoliticianEstes Kefauver of Tennessee adopted the coonskin cap as a personaltrademark during his successful 1948campaign for election to theUnited States Senate. Tennesseepolitical bossE. H. Crump had published advertisements accusing Kefauver of being a raccoon-likeCommunist puppet. In response, Kefauver put on a coonskin cap during a speech inMemphis, proclaiming: "I may be apet coon, but I'm not Boss Crump's pet coon."[4] He continued to use the coonskin cap as a trademark throughout his political career, which included unsuccessful campaigns for theDemocratic presidential nomination in 1952 and 1956, an unsuccessful campaign for theVice Presidency asAdlai Stevenson's running mate in 1956, and successful Senatorial re-election campaigns in 1954 and 1960.[4]
In the 20th century, the iconic association was in large part due toDisney's television programDisneyland and the first threeDavy Crockett episodes starringFess Parker, which aired from December 1954 to February 1955. In the episodes, which once again made Crockett into one of the most popular men in the country, the frontier hero was portrayed wearing a coonskin cap. The show spawned severalDisneyland Davy Crockett sequels as well as other similar shows and movies, with many of them featuring Parker as the lead actor. Parker went on to star in aDaniel Boone television series (1964–1970), again wearing a coonskin cap.
Crockett's new popularity initiated afad among boys all over the United States as well as aDavy Crockett craze in the United Kingdom. The look of the cap that was marketed to young boys was typically simplified; it was usually afaux fur lined skull cap with a raccoon tail attached. A variation was marketed to young girls as the Polly Crockett hat. It was similar in style to the boys' cap, including the long tail, but was made of all-white fur (faux or possibly rabbit). At the peak of the fad, coonskin caps sold at a rate of 5,000 caps a day.[5] By the end of the 1950s, Crockett's popularity waned and the fad slowly died out. The fad is recalled by numerous cultural references, such as the wearing of coonskin caps as part ofThe Junior Woodchucks uniform in Disney'sDonald Duck comics. NovelistThomas Pynchon referenced both the hat and the fashion in his novelV., where he refers to the hat as a "bushy Freudianhermaphrodite symbol".
Coonskin caps are powerful cultural symbols that continued to be seen infilm,television, and other contexts in the latter decades of the 20th century.
In the 1955-1956 CBS-TV series,The Honeymooners, characters Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton belong to the local Bensonhurst chapter of the Loyal Order of Raccoons. Their uniforms include a coonskin hat. They greet each other by shaking the tail on their hat.
In the 1964 ABC-TV seriesThe Addams Family,Uncle Fester occasionally wears a coonskin cap dyed black with a white strip running down the middle of both the crown and the tail, suggesting that it was made from the skin of askunk.
In Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "The man in the coon-skin cap / By the big pen / Wants eleven dollar bills / You only got ten."
The 1983 filmA Christmas Story, which features various cultural artifacts of American childhood from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, depicts a boy wearing a coonskin cap.
Florida politicianLawton Chiles put on a coonskin cap while celebrating his 1994gubernatorial re-election victory overRepublicanJeb Bush, recalling a campaign statement in which Chiles had predicted victory by saying "the old he-coon walks just before the light of day".[6]
The Great Brain series features Parley Benson, a person who wears a coonskin cap.
In the American History cartoonHisteria!, Kip Ling, the bow-haired girl, Froggo and Aka Pella are seen wearing coonskin caps when they sing a song about Philo Farnsworth. Toast has been seen wearing one on a bus with the Kid Chorus.
Ferb from the American cartoonPhineas and Ferb is seen wearing a coonskin cap when he saws a log with Phineas (episode: "She's the Mayor")
Senator Jack S. Phogbound ofLi'l Abner comic strip wears a coonskin cap.
Sam Shakusky, a lead character ofWes Anderson's 2012 filmMoonrise Kingdom, is frequently seen wearing a coonskin cap. The film is set in 1965 and incorporates many elements of 1950s and 1960s youth culture.
In the acclaimed Disney channel cartoonGravity Falls, various characters can be seen wearing coonskin caps in the series, most notably Pacifica Northwest in the episode "Irrational Treasure".
The Volunteer, one of the costumed mascots for the sports teams of theUniversity of Tennessee, wears a coonskin cap and fringedbuckskins, inspired by the frontier attire of many of Tennessee's volunteers in theWar of 1812, the inspiration for the state and university'snickname.
The first issue ofGuardians of the Galaxy seesRocket Raccoon pestering his teammates about the newly formed team's name. Upon suggesting "Rocket Raccoon and His Human Hangers-On",Drax the Destroyer sarcastically replies "How about 'Drax and his Coonskin Cap', that grab you?"
In the 2018 Western action-adventure video gameRed Dead Redemption 2, the player can hire a taxidermist to make them a coonskin cap by hunting and providing the raccoon needed for the hat.
West Virginia University's mascot, the Mountaineer, wears a coonskin cap along with buckskins, a powder horn, and a black powder rifle.
.jpg)
.jpg)
