Hat Making Process Collection

The American straw hat making industry traces its origins to Betsy Metcalf. Betsy may not have made the first straw hat in America, but in 1798, at age twelve, she made a straw bonnet that is believed to be the first documented straw hat made in the USA. She then “learned all who wished to make bonnets.” The rest is history. What began as a cottage industry grew into a thriving business that drove Medfield’s economy for over 150 years. At its peak in the early 1900s Medfield became the second largest straw and felt hat operation in the United States, second only to Foxborough, employing more than 1,200 people–larger than the population of the town at that time–and turning out over two and one half million hats a year.