Why Victorian Women Wore Entire Birds On Their Heads

I know it sounds absolutely wild, but yes, there was a time when it was fashionable to wear a bird on your head. Sure, we’ve seen feathers on hats time and time again, but these were preserved bodies of birds: heads, tails, and all. I think even those with the most unique fashion taste would be shocked by these hats.

In the late 1800s, every woman needed bird feathers on her hat. Because exotic feathers could now be shipped to major cities like London, Paris, and New York, the demand just kept growing.

Some of the most popular hats included feathers with artificial flowers, lace, ribbons, fruit, and even insects (gross!). The hats were meant to make you feel like you just walked into a beautiful garden. And on top of that garden? A bird, of course! These hats were meant to make a statement and were often the centerpiece of an outfit.

The more exotic the bird, the more fashionable you were. Women sought out the rarest and most visually striking species. Hummingbirds, herons, and egrets were a few popular choices, prized for their unique color, shape, and stunning plumage.

Now, this all sounds a bit silly until you step back to think about the poor birds harmed for these hats. Sadly, the most desirable plumes appeared during breeding season, meaning that hunters would target birds while they were nesting. This left many eggs and chicks without parents.

My grandparents used to own a cottage, and we’d watch hummingbirds fly up to the bird feeder. It’s hard to imagine those tiny, stunning birds as decoration. But in the 19th century, due to their iridescent feathers and small size, they were a top choice to be mounted on hats.

The bird business became a major one, and by the late 19th century, feathers and bird skins were being shipped to major cities in large quantities.

We’re not just talking about hundreds of birds either. Some shipments involved tens of thousands of bird skins. It’s really hard to imagine the magnitude of this craze, and it makes me all the more sad thinking about how many birds lost their lives for a fashion statement.

Women were willing to pay a pretty penny for their bird hats, so plume hunting suddenly became very profitable.

Egret feathers were so in demand and deemed of such high quality that they could be worth more than their weight in gold. That seems absolutely crazy when you think about it!

Today, most fashion trends are accessible to the public, but in the 19th century, that wasn’t always the case. However, these feathered hats were available to women of every class. Sure, the rarer plumed hats were reserved for the elite, but there were more affordable options.

These hats were so trendy that they were constantly featured on models in fashion magazines. When flipping through these magazines, you’d often find a woman wearing a dramatic feathered hat, leading to even more demand.

It didn’t take long for animal-welfare advocates to start protesting the hats, and I don’t blame them. Sure, it’s fun to follow trends and feel like you belong, but when it’s at the expense of living creatures, it just feels morally wrong. These activists demanded that women stop purchasing hats with wild birds.

One of the animal-welfare activists opposing the trend was Emily Williamson. In 1889, in Britain, she founded a group asking women not to wear feathers from birds hunted for fashion. Two other women, Eliza Phillips and Etta Lemon, had their own organizations demanding the same thing. In 1891, these two organizations merged to form the Society for the Protection of Birds.

Suddenly, there was a divide in Victorian society. You had the women who adored their feathered hats and loved fashion, and you had women who were protesting that very thing.

Activists were all over the United States as well. In Massachusetts, Harriet Lawrence Hemenway and her cousin Minna B. Hall had their own movement against feathered hats in the 1890s. This led to the creation of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896.

Trends come and go, and activists realized that the only way to get women to stop purchasing the hats was to kill the trend. If wearing feathered hats wasn’t socially acceptable anymore, bird hunting would stop.

The bird-protection activists risked their lives in order to get their message across. In Florida, plume hunters targeted waterbirds, and many activists would try to stand in their way. One man named Guy Bradley was sadly killed in 1905 while confronting a plume poacher named Walter Smith.

Eventually, the effort of these activists paid off, and stronger laws were passed to protect wild birds. In the States, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 offered federal protection to many bird species. Britain followed in 1921 with the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act, which restricted the importation of several types of bird feathers. These laws weren’t passed due to the hats alone. The broader feather trade, including other decorative and commercial uses, played a role too.

What started as a weird fashion trend turned into a full movement. Sure, it’s comical to see photographs of full birds on women’s hats, but knowing the pain and suffering these animals went through for a fashion trend just doesn’t sit well with me, and I don’t think I can ever look at those images the same.

This content was created with the help of AI.