CS Knowledge Base

The mackinaw jacket, also known as a mackinaw coat,^[1] is a short double-breasted coat made of a thick heavy woollen material, often in a red-and-black plaid pattern.^[2]

The word "mackinaw" is derived from the Odawa Ojibwe language word "Mitchimakinak" meaning a large turtle.^[3] When French Canadian fur traders transliterated the word, they spelled it as Michilimackinac, but pronounced the final consonant as "aw" rather than "c". The British later shortened the word and changed the spelling to match the French pronunciation: Mackinaw, though the French spelling was used for Fort Mackinac when constructed in 1780–81.^[4]

The origin of the mackinaw jacket is owed to the British Army Captain Charles Roberts,^[5] while commanding Fort St. Joseph along the St. Mary's River near Sault Ste. Marie. Roberts was unable to obtain military-issued winter greatcoats from his general headquarters (G.H.Q.) located in Montreal, Quebec, for the forty soldiers of the 10th Royal Veterans Battalion^[6] under his charge.^[7][8] The date was November 20, 1811, and Captain Roberts, wrote a letter by candlelight to the then Captain Thomas Evans,^[9] adjutant general in Montreal, Quebec, making a requisition, written as follows:

The mackinaw jacket, created as a child of grim necessity for cold weather conditions, had a short rhyme written about it, adapted from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade:

When can its glory fade?
Stout little coat of plaid,
All the north wondered.
Honour the coat they made
Down at the old stockade,
Still made by the hundred.^[18][7]

In modern times, the mackinaw jacket has proven to be effective as cold weather workwear and popular among the blue-collar working class including farmers, fishermen, lumberjacks, longshoremen, trappers and outdoorsmen.^[18] The demand for the mackinaw jacket has decreased by the end of the 20th century; however, it continues to be manufactured by several companies including: C.C. Filson Co. and Johnson Woolen Mills.^[18]

• In the 1954 movie On the Waterfront the actor Marlon Brando wore a mackinaw jacket.
• In Ernest Hemingway's short story, The Last Good Country, the character Nick Adams wears a mackinaw jacket.^[18]
• On the 1970s television sitcom All in the Family the character Archie Bunker wears a mackinaw jacket on cold days.^[18]
• The fictional lumberjack Paul Bunyan is often depicted wearing a mackinaw jacket.
• The Ottawa Redblacks mascot Big Joe wears a mackinaw jacket.
• The mackinaw jackets and shirts were often worn by Vancouver's notorious Clark Park Gang during the late 1960s and early 1970s.^[20][21]
• The Mackinaw jacket is one of the best jackets acquirable in the game The Long Dark and the best non-crafted jacket available on the hardest difficulty of an interloper.^{[citation needed]}

• Mackinaw cloth
• Capote