More on Tradesman's Paper Caps

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Jan/Feb 2004 by Turner, Ken, Rymell, Dave

By Ken Turner

Blackburn, Victoria, Australia

(Ken Turner is a member both of the EAIA and The HTPAA -Hand Tool Preservation Association of Australia.)

Indications are that little has been written on the history of the paper cap, possibly because it was thought that such mundane headwear was not worthy of recording. In fact, the thought probably never even occurred to anyone. I mean, who in any case, would have thought then that any in the twenty-first century and perhaps beyond, would be interested in reading about workman's' paper caps made out of discarded daily newspapers. However, these caps, no matter how humble, are all part of the social fabric of the time and should surely be recorded.

There is much evidence of paper caps having been used in the nineteenth century. The paper cap fitted on the head rather like a pill box and served well to protect the hair from dust. Paper caps were easily and usually made from four broadsheet newspapers, which was a daily chore.

In 1865 this paper is shown in the illustrations of a carpenter by John Tenniel in Lewis Car roll's Through the Looking Glass. There is the opinion that Tenniel's illustrations had some influence in the paper cap becoming known as a 'carpenter's cap/ There is, as well, the old saying, "The grand distinguishing mark of a fine carpenter is the wearing of a paper cap."

The paper cap was as well found serviceable by tradesmen in at least some twenty-five other trades, some of which are as follows: bookbinders, candle makers, coopers, file cutters, glass blowers, iron founders, masons, needle makers, plasterers, soap boilers, stone masons, rope makers, tallow-chandlers, tobacco workers, tanners, and wheelwrights.

It seems even wine merchants wore paper caps, for Charles Dickens mirrors the life of the times in his novels. In David Copperfield, he describes the dress of the head boy in a wine merchant's shop: "His name was Mick Walker, and he wore a ragged apron and a paper cap."

R.S. Surtees in his 183Os' book, Jorrocks, Jaunts and Jollies, describes a warehouseman as "A man in his short sleeves, with a white apron round his waist and brown paper cap of his head ..."

By Dave Rymell

Wallington, Surrey, United Kingdom

(Dave Rymell is a member of TATHS (The Tool and Trades History Society) and forwards these thoughts on workman's square paper caps that he sent to quener Nick Nichols.)

Since I retired in 1993 after a lifetime in the construction industry, I became a volunteer/demonstrator at the Amber ley Working Museum in West Sussex. I served an apprenticeship as carpenter and joiner but never once saw anyone wearing a paper cap!

I became interested in the subject when I realized how difficult it was holding the attention of even a small number of young children when they were on a school visit. I had seen a demonstration at one of the Society's meetings, and I knew that the instructions for folding the cap were given in R.A. Salaman's Dictionary of Woodworking Tools. Boldly I set out to teach the children how to make a cap from a sheet of newspaper.

Little did I realize -where all this would lead! I found to my surprise that visitors of all ages were interested. Men who had worked in the print machine rooms of the national newspapers told me that they used to wear the cap right up until the time that the old P.M.R's were closed down and newspapers were printed on machines of the new technology!

People asked questions, and I did not know the answers. Starting with an article by Richard Filmier in the TATHS newsletter No.16,1 was lead to that useful book Occupational Costume in England from the Eleventh to Nineteenth Centuries. People told me where I might find pictures and I now have quite a collection, including pictures and quotes from various books by Charles Dickens, prints of pictures in art galleries, extracts from the American Pressman, 1954-56.

It would seem that the "cap" crossed the Atlantic around 1850. Italy has a tradition of workmen wearing paper caps, and a similar cap is worn by painters and decorators in Hong Kong.

Some tradesmen choose to use paper caps even today. From all accounts, they are still used by Italian bricklayers and others in the building trades. (I myself have witnessed these caps being worn by workmen on a building site in Melbourne in 2001.)

By Ken Turner

Blackburn, Victoria, Australia

(Ken Turner is a member both of the EAIA and The HTPAA -Hand Tool Preservation Association of Australia.)

By Dave Rymell

Wallington, Surrey, United Kingdom

(Dave Rymell is a member of TATHS (The Tool and Trades History Society) and forwards these thoughts on workman's square paper caps that he sent to quener Nick Nichols.)