Miner Helmets

Various Helmets dating from the 1900s to 1950s.

Miners’ helmets and caps in the U.S. were initially used more for the utilitarian purpose of having a place to hold a lamp while the miner worked. They were later developed into a safety device to protect the miner.

In the United States, the E.D. Bullard Company was a mining equipment firm in California, created by Edward Dickinson Bullard in 1898, who was in the industrial safety business for 20 years. The company sold protective hats, but they were only made of leather. His son, E.W. Bullard, arrived home from World War I with a steel helmet, which provided him with an idea to improve industrial safety. In 1919 Bullard patented a “Hard-Boiled Hat”, made of steamed canvas, glue and black paint. That same year the U.S. Navy commissioned Bullard to create a shipyard protective cap, which began the widespread use of hard hats. Not long after, Bullard developed an internal suspension that would provide a more effective hat.

Info Provided By: http://miningartifacts.homestead.com/

On the Topic of WW1 US Uniforms

If you watched the UMW’s video, “Into the Darkness,” one of the narrator’s mentions that some of the miner’s wore the uniforms that they had worn in France during the Great War. There is enough evidence to prove that this statement is correct through picture’s taken during the ten days that the battle took place and the surrender to Federal forces.

From what I can tell, the most common items would have been the “Bordie” helmet, M1910 ammo belt, and occasionally the M1903 Bandolier. Some men did wear the full uniform into battle, though. My general opinion of guerrilla fighters, however; is to keep full military dress to a minimum

Since the subject of US Army uniforms is rather detailed I’d highly recommend visiting theHeartland Doughboys. They are an American Expeditionary Force reenactment group based in the upper-Midwest.

Schipperfabrik and What Price Glory are amongst the best and most recommend vendors for items.

The First “Rednecks”

The earliest example I can find used within the US dates from the 1890s. The term had also been used in the 1600s to describe Presbyterian Scottish rebels by the British nobles just prior to the English Civil War. It seems that some historians say that with the large amounts of Scot and Scot Irish that moved to the south, the term stuck around. What I learned was that it’s from farmers that got sunburned on their necks from being out in the fields all day. It meant a poor farmer, because he doesn’t have field hands working for him, so he had to do it himself.