Red, white, and blue Danish style crown-shaped hat made for Mille Gade Corson, the second woman to swim the English Channel, three weeks after Gertrude Ederle's record breaking Channel swim. Corson emigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1919 and became a Life Saving Instructor and Lifeguard at the Harlem branch of the YWCA. In 1921 she became the second woman to swim around Manhattan Island and attempted to swim the English Channel in 1923 but was forced to abandon the effort 2 miles from the French coast. After her successful 1926 swim Corson returned to the US to many accolades and performed on the vaudeville circuit as the first mother to swim the English Channel.
