"When most people think of tiaras, they picture royalty or brides, not the military; however, the unique headpiece has a place in the history of the US armed forces. At one time, three branches of the armed forces offered tiaras to servicewomen for formal events, and the Navy still permits them today, though spotting one in the wild is rare."
""It's always a good day when you come upon something that's not a little bit out of the ordinary," said Natalie Elder, a military and society collections manager for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History who aided in the rediscovery of the museum's two tiaras - one, a Marine Corps tiara and another from the Army Nurse Corps. "I can't remember if I knew that the military had tiaras at that point, but everybody got really excited about it.""
Military tiaras have historical use in the US armed forces, issued for formal occasions in three branches and still permitted by the Navy. The ornamental headpieces emerged in the 1950s after women gained legal active-duty status and were worn at galas and state events by high-ranking servicewomen. The Smithsonian houses at least two vintage examples rediscovered during a digital cataloging effort; those tiaras belonged to colonels Mildred Clark of the Army Nurse Corps and Marine Mary Bane. The pieces signified both the growing permanence of women in the military and an emphasis on femininity, and vintage examples are rare and sought by collectors.
Read at Business Insider
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