1849 Knickerbocker, New York (Knickerbockers)
This rendering is based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
A heady baseball topic –- the straw hats of 1849 Knickerbocker.
John Thorn asked. Baseball’s preeminent historian and author had been “poking around” the Threads of Our Game website, and specifically the renderings of baseball uniforms of the 1850s.
“Why not,” John emailed, “start with the Knicks of 1849, whose garb was described in Peverelly?”
Well, this task has sat on my to-do list for a long time. However the idea of drawing the first adopted uniform of one of baseball’s first teams was somewhat overwhelming — especially since visual documentation does not exist. As an example, how do I accurately portray the team’s straw hat if I don’t first understand the hat styles of the period?
But, since John asked…..
Starting with Peverelly.
Charles A. Peverelly (1821?-1905) was a New York commission merchant, reporter for the New York Daily News, Civil War historian, a prominent figure in New York’s boating and rowing society, and one who often “engaged in the reporting of outdoor sports.” His Book of American Pastimes (1866) was “the first volume of any size ever published” covering the subjects of yachting, rowing, cricket — and over 200 pages on baseball.
In compiling Pastimes, Peverelly asked the nation’s top baseball clubs, including the Knickerbockers, to submit year-by-year accounts of their team, with date organized, list of officers, and match results through the 1866 season. Thankfully, he also asked for descriptions of team uniforms.
The Knickerbocker uniform, 1849.
For the Knickerbockers, Peverelly wrote the following in his book: “On April 24, 1849, a uniform was adopted for the club: blue woolen pantaloons, white flannel shirt, chip (straw) hats; and it may here be mentioned that the blue and white has ever since remained the costume of the club.” A “chip” hat, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “a light hat woven or plaited from thin strips of wood or palm leaf.”
My hesitation was not with the woolen pants or the flannel shirt, these would be somewhat easy to illustrate. The straw hats were the issue. How did they look? What shape? What size? What profile? It was time to get a better understanding of headgear fashion, circa 1850.
Of course, there is this famous photo.
Dated pre-Civil War, sometimes identified as an image of the early Knickerbockers from the late 1840s. A “circa 1846” date was given to this image by Stephen Wong, Smithsonian Baseball (2005). In 2024, SABR member Irwin Chusid has noted that the image has many “competitive claims” as to when the photo was taken and, more importantly, who it was of. Noted baseball historians over the years have applied the names of Knickerbocker founders to the faces, most notably that of Alexander Cartwright, back row center, Duncan Curry, front row left, and Daniel (Doc) Adams, front row center. Indeed, there are visual similarities when comparing these three in the photograph to other known photographs. However, Chusid remarks that one researcher “insists that these gents are not the Knickerbocker at all.” That researcher is Mark Fimoff of the SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee. In 2012 Fimoff published a study of the image, one where he applied varying facial analysis techniques to each person in the photo, and found no match to any available exemplars. Chusid adds that “the late Marjorie Adams, great-granddaughter of Doc Adams, insists that the guy in the bottom row middle is not ‘Doc.’”
What we do know about the above image was that the gentlemen were wearing some wonderful straw hats. Note that none appeared identical, each seemed slightly different from the next. (The hat in front row, center, may have been made of cloth, not straw.) The varying styles may offer a possible new revelation: the straw hats the Knickerbocker club wore in 1849 were not uniform — they were not purchased at one time from a single source. Instead, they may have been purchased individually by each member as needed and therefore, each naturally had some variation.
Borrowed from cricket?
Cricket caps and hat from the 1850s. Like much of baseball itself, I wondered if the straw hats of the Knickerbockers were hand-me-downs from cricket? While it’s true that many cap styles were similar in both games, like those shown left and center, I found that straw hats were NOT represented in my selection of drawings and photos of cricket players from the era. The tall top hat, right, was common upon the heads of English cricketers. Surely, this style was worn more for formal use than for actual play?
Straw hats from everyday life.
Straw hats from the middle of the 19th century. These examples were from everyday life, not from sport. The gentlemen here were of a relatively young age and therefore likely in tune with the trends of the day. They may also have been from different social strata, the man in the middle was a cobbler. As you can see, these hats had a tall body and a wide brim. On the two examples at left, the body of the hat flared slightly at the top, suggesting the top-hat form. These hats were very similar to those shown in the Knickerbocker image, if not slightly taller in profile.
More examples of straw hats from the middle of the 19th century. These hats featured a brim that was more rounded and/or more flexible than the previous examples shown. The middle example was clearly (and on purpose) oversized and worn in combination with a military uniform. The hat at far right was worn by a laborer or an enslaved person. The style of hat in these examples did not match those shown in the Knickerbocker image.
Straw hats from decades later.
Straw hats from the turn of the 20th century. These images show that straw hats, in general, became gradually smaller in size over time. The bodies of the hat were not as tall as decades earlier, both the tops of the hats and the brims had become flatter, and the overall material (sennit straw) became stiffer. The “boater” style, center and right (on Mr. McGillicuddy), was the chapeau du jour from 1900 to 1930.
Maybe, the Knickerbocker hats looked like this?
Dated July 25, 1854. Photo of the Yale University rowing team, captured in a New Haven photo studio. These men wore straw hats with wide accentuated brims, as exaggerated as the uniform itself. This overall get-up was more likely designed for parading than for actual competition. However, this again points to the oversized nature of straw hats in the 1850s.
An eye-witness account, 1876.
To help with my task, John Thorn pointed me to a first-hand encounter with the Knickerbocker straw hat. The reference came from the New York Sun on January 16, 1876, when the newspaper visited long-standing Knickerbocker member James Whyte Davis (1826-1899) at his home. Davis had joined the Knickerbockers in 1850 and, as noted by Thorn, was also responsible for designing the team colors: “a triangular pennant, with a blue ‘K’ in a white circle surmounting one red and one blue horizontal panel.”
Here is an excerpt from the Sun:
“Mr. Davis was visited in his room in University Place in the evening. He said he was an enthusiast on the subject of base ball. He had been a member of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club for 25 years. Hanging over the bed was the old original worn and tattered flag of the club, which he said was to be used as his shroud when he died. […] Two immense straw hats hung on the wall by the tattered flag.”
In his email to me, Thorn added, “those hats were part of the original Knickerbocker uniform, beginning in 1849. Davis played his first games with the club in September 1850.”
Soon to become “old hat.”
After their initial adoption in 1849, Peverelly wrote that the Knickerbocker “straw hats were abolished some years later,” adding that the club switched to a “mohair cap” in August 1855. Mohair is a fabric derived from the hair of the Angora goat, similar to wool and flannel which come from sheep. These fabrics were the new choice of prominent teams of the 1850s.
An inconclusive conclusion.
So, we know that a surviving Knickerbocker straw hat was called “immense” in 1876. We know straw hats, in general, were larger in size in the middle of the century when compared to the turn of the next century. And it was possible that the hats were each slightly different from one another and purchased at different times.
We will never know exactly what the Knickerbocker hat looked like. But with the above study, I can say with some certainty that we’re now in the ballpark. So I offer to you one interpretation of the Knickerbocker’s first uniform, chip hat and all.
Thank you for your time. — Craig
Image scan of the would-be Knickerbockers from Eric Miklich, 19cbaseball.com. Eric offers on his website one interpretation of who was who. Image date of circa 1846 from Stephen Wong, Smithsonian Baseball (2005), who credited the original half-plate daguerreotype from the collection of Corey R. Shanus.
Images of cricketers. Left: dated 1858, detail of illustration of Heathfield H. Stephenson by John C. Anderson, antique-prints.co.uk. Middle: dated circa 1860, detail of illustration of William Caffyn, after an original watercolour by John C. Anderson, gettyimages.ca. Right: dated circa 1850, detail of illustration of George Parr by William Bromley, reddit.com. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
Images of straw hats, row 1. Left: dated mid-century, from pinterest.com. Center: dated mid-century, from reddit.com, image courtesy of Greg French. Right: dated mid-century, from blockaderunner.com.
Images of straw hats, row 2. Left: dated mid-century, from monovisions.com. Center: dated late 1840s, purportedly an image of Stonewall Jackson (unconfirmed), from blockaderunner.com. Right: dated circa 1860, from commons.wikimedia.org, citing the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Images of straw hats, row 3. Left: dated circa 1890, from ebay.com. Center: dated circa 1910, from alamy.com. Right: dated 1911, image of Connie Mack by Paul Thomson, from en.wikipedia.org.
Image of Yale rowing crew: dated 1854, from ptk.tumbler.com, who stated the reverse bears notation reading “Taken in N. Haven July 25, 1854.”
Visual documentation on this uniform:
Photo A
Dated April 14, 1936. This illustration, full view left and detail view right, of the 1849 Knickerbocker uniform with straw hat was posted in a newspaper advertisement on this day. The ad was for Felsenbrau Beer, and included several other slightly humorous illustrations of the early 19th-century game. Image from the Cincinnati Enquirer, April 14, 1936. Research from Michael Clair, mlb.com, The long, strange history of the baseball cap, (December 28, 2023).
Written documentation on this uniform:
1849-1866: “On April 24, 1849, a uniform was adopted for the club: blue woolen pantaloons, white flannel shirt, chip (straw) hats; and it may here be mentioned that the blue and white has ever since remained the costume of the club. The straw hats were abolished some years later. […] On the 13th of August, 1855, the uniform of the club was again regulated. Blue woolen pants, white flannel shirt, with narrow blue braid, mohair cap, and belt of patent leather. With the exception of a change of cap, the uniform has ever since remained.” From Charles A. Peverelly, The Book Of American Pastimes (1866).
1850s, recounted in September 1875: “By invitation of Mr. James Whyte Davis a number of the oldest members of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club assembled on the club grounds in Hoboken yesterday [September 27] to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of active membership of ‘Poor old Davis.’ Mr. Davis joined the club on the 17th of September, 1850, when the American game was in its infancy, and the Knickerbockers were its only champions. Over the club house floated the old club flag, designed by Davis twenty years ago, and worn to ribbons by long service. The players were hardly less dilapidated, and most of them were in uniform for the first time in fifteen years. […] Just as Davis drew back his hand to deliver the first ball, Mrs. McClinton, his daughter, stepped forward amid the cheers of the spectators and bound around his waist a belt of blue ribbon, on the front of which was embroidered in silver letters the name of the club, while the left side depicted two broad blue silk ribbons, one of which were the words, ‘To Poor Old Davis,’ and on the other ‘For his 25th ball birthday.” From the New York Sun, September 28, 1875
1850s, recounted in January 1876: “Mr. [James Whyte] Davis was visited in his room in University Place in the evening. He said he was an enthusiast on the subject of base ball. He had been a member of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club for 25 years. Hanging over the bed was the old original worn and tattered flag of the club, which he said was to be used as his shroud when he died. In a glass case, that looked like a handsome aquarium, were stowed away a piece of an old style base-ball shirt, a blue sash with “Poor Old Davis” embroidered on it, a silver ball, and crossed bats, presented to him last September by the other members of the Knickerbocker Club, and a blue base-ball belt. Two immense straw hats hung on the wall by the tattered flag which was to be buried with him.” From the New York Sun, January 16, 1876. Research from John Thorn, posted to Our Game, July 11, 2022.
Team genealogy: Knickerbocker, New York, 1845-late 1860s.
Knickerbocker loosely formed in New York in 1842 and officially organized in 1845. The term Knickerbocker derived from a surname that symbolized the city’s Dutch origins. The club published a well-known set of game rules in 1845 which helped to codify the New York-style game. Knickerbocker was one of 16 charter members of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) in 1857. The NABBP was baseball’s first organization, operating 1857-1870. The Knickerbocker club ceased to play games competitively in the late 1860s. Afterward, the Knickerbocker name has been used by many New York sports teams, including the NBA franchise, which took the name in 1946. Information from John Thorn, William Ryczek, Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Founders (2103), and from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: September 1, 2024
Diggers on this uniform: John Thorn,