News / January #BlueStarByte: Top Hats & U.S. Presidents

January #BlueStarByte: Top Hats & U.S. Presidents

Beginning in the late 19th century, it was customary for U.S. presidents to wear a top hat at their swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day. Who was the last U.S. president to wear one to an inauguration?

Answer: President John F. Kennedy

The custom of U.S. presidents wearing a top hat at their swearing-in ceremony dates to at least 1881, beginning with James Garfield’s inauguration. Dwight Eisenhower chose to forgo the tradition and wore a Homburg hat instead of the top hat at his inauguration in 1953.

In the run-up to President Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, a column in the Baltimore Sun called on Kennedy to bring back the tradition of the top hat. Some also claim that Kennedy’s decision to wear the hat resulted from lobbying by the hat industry, which was facing declining sales.

Kennedy eventually agreed to wear a top hat to the inauguration. However, some Senate Republicans criticized the decision, claiming that “such formal wear was more appropriate for a coronation, not an inauguration.”

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