January 11, 2024 – Theme Week Day 4

We’re continuing our theme week on Misnomers today. Our misnomer today is Panama hats, which are actually made in Ecuador, where they’re still made to this day. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Ecuador in 1526, they saw people in the coastal areas wearing straw hats that were ideal for protection against the tropical sun. Hat weaving evolved as a cottage industry along the Ecuadorean coast in the 1600s, and grew steadily throughout the country in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Like many South American goods, straw hats woven in Ecuador were shipped to the Isthmus of Panama, before being sent to their destinations around the globe. Also, in the 1850s many hat weavers took their products to the busy trade center of Panama, where they could sell more than they ever could in Ecuador. There the hats were sold to many gold prospectors, on their way to California during the gold rush. Travelers would tell people admiring their hats that they bought them in Panama, so they quickly became known as Panama hats.
The name was further reinforced by President Theodore Roosevelt when he wore one on a trip to oversee the construction of the Panama Canal. Photos of the President wearing his Panama hat appeared in newspapers across the country, and the hat became very fashionable.
Weaving a Panama hat can take anywhere from a day to 8 months, depending on the quality and the finesse of the weave. The rarest and most expensive hats are hand woven with up to 3000 weaves per square inch. In December 2012, the Ecuadorean art of hat weaving was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Learn more here.