8 thoughts on “Elders in Alabama, 1898”

1. When did missionary standards case on hats?

2. There’s probably a typo that prevents me from being sure of the question. If it’s about a change from requiring hats, I know they were still officially “required” into the ’50s, at least, but depending on the mission that requirement was generally ignored.

3. My dad was still required to wear a hat in the Southern States Mission in probably 1966-68 (he doesn’t remember the dates exactly but he thinks he was about 21 when he went, and he was born in 1945).

4. That’s a useful datapoint, S, thanks.

5. My dad wore a hat in the mid-1950s. I would have thought the late 1960s would have been no hats!

6. In my 1966-68 European mission, local members told us of an earlier mission president (at least 4 years earlier — I never tracked it down) who reluctantly permitted the missionaries to remove their suit jackets during the heat of the summer — on condition that they continued to wear their hats. Some of the rules/rule enforcement could not be better designed to make missionaries look ridiculous as representatives of the Church. But in the mid-late sixties we did get a laugh out of prior foibles.

7. Did we ever think there would be a discussion like this about sister missionaries wearing pants?

8. I think it was around this time that the Prince Albert suit became no longer a requirement for missionaries. But it looks like these guys might have been wearing long jackets.

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