As a child, Jennifer Birk-Cook says she always loved her family’s tradition of wearing Easter bonnets to church on Easter Sunday each year. And she remembers her first two hats: her cowboy hat, which she wore when her family rode their horses in the Sikeston Rodeo Parade, and an Easter bonnet she wore to church when she was in kindergarten. A boy from her church stole it off of her head and locked himself in his car while wearing it, so she couldn’t get it back.
Now, Birk-Cook, the drama director at Perryville High School in Perryville, Mo., since 2000, owns approximately 300 vintage hats. The collection includes women’s summer and winter hats, bride and bridesmaid hats, military hats, cowboy hats, and novelty jester and “Cat in the Hat” hats.
Many of them have been given to her by people from the community whose relatives have passed away, and she has also bought some of them from thrift and antique stores, although she says she never pays more than $5 for a hat.
“I’ve always liked hats,” Birk-Cook says. “[I enjoy collecting hats] because it’s fun, it’s unusual, and I can actually use them in shows.”
This fall marks the 50th play Birk-Cook will direct at Perryville High School. Throughout the years, hats from Birk-Cook’s collection have made their appearance in productions like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Father of the Bride,” “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Seussical the Musical” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.” She is also involved with Perryville’s community theater group, and most recently, she used hats from her collection while doing costuming for their production of “The Sound of Music.”
Birk-Cook directs a theater camp for elementary-aged children each summer, and she often has these students act out the children’s book “Caps for Sale,” a play in which she stacks hats from her collection on top of the head of the actor playing the peddler.
Birk-Cook believes providing a place of belonging for students, especially those who are quieter or who may not have an interest in sports, is important.
“Kids, I feel like they need it. … It gives them confidence,” Birk-Cook says of why she continues to direct. “A lot of [students] have told me over the years that [acting in plays is] why they stayed in school.”
Birk-Cook estimates the oldest hat in her collection is from the 1910s or 1920s; most of them are from the 1940s and 1950s. She has been given Montgomery-Ward catalogues from each decade that help her identify the hats and that also help her design authentic costumes and sets from each era. After she retires from directing, she says she may donate her hat collection to a museum for an exhibit on hats throughout history.
Birk-Cook says she enjoys the unique details of each hat and the craftsmanship that has historically been a part of hatmaking that is not usually present in commercially-made hats today.
“Going back in a different time period is fun, which is why I like theater,” Birk-Cook says. “And [collecting hats] just kind of seems like a connection to the past.”
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