The colour red is an iconic colour that was often used for royalty and battle. The colour is associated with passion and war. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s red tunic jacket is iconic. The influence of the red coats comes from the early days of the Dominion of Canada and the British military regime.
Cochineal Red
The dye they used was from the Cochineal bug (Dactylopius coccus). They are mostly found around Mexico and South America. The bugs would be found on the warmer side of cacti (most likely on the prickly pear a.k.a. Opuntia) in white clusters where they were picked off by dyers. The bugs would be dried in the sun, then crushed and ground up to be a bright red that would be collected for dying. This dye is often called carmine. The dye makers would use alum to help the colours stick to the clothing. They would use acids or metals, like tin, to shift the colour from a pale pink to blackish red. The number of cochineal insects it takes for a single pound of colour is 70,000 bugs. The red created was the bright red.
Cochineal on Opuntia cactus, La Palma. Source: Wikipedia: Zyance – CC2
Early American civilizations, such as the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Incas, used the red colour to paint and dye robes. It was used as gifts for tribes and communities within the Aztec and Inca empires. The Aztecs received 40 sacks from Mixtec people yearly and 20 bags from the Zapotecs every 80 days. Many Inca rulers and other South American rulers have died because of cochineal. The red colour was also used as a coded communication among other Incas. Dyed knotted cords were used to communicate messages within their complex writing system. The knots on the cord were called quipu, with messages about time, money, gods and armies encrypted within the dyed knots on the cord. Black knots meant time, yellow knots meant money, blue knots meant gods, and red knots meant the Inca army.
When the Spaniard conquistadors invaded Mexico in 1519 discovered the cochineal Aztec markets. They then took over the cochineal production and supply. They sent their “trade secret” dye back to Europe. The red dye became the most valuable product to come from the Americas, next to gold and silver. In 1587, 72 tons of cochineal bugs were exported from Peru to Spain for the Spanish Empire. By the 18th century, the dye was used for Venetian velvets, funded the Dutch dye industry, fashioned the red robes of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, and gave rosy cheeks and medicinal use. The colour compound travelled over Europe, Cambodia, Thailand and China.
The dye produced a strong scarlet colour, which was associated with being a symbol of power in European societies. The colour was long-lasting, intense, rare and expensive. The paint mixed with reds like vermilion made a rich cherry-red glaze. But lake reds from cochineal red faded when exposed to light. Joshua Reynolds, an 18th-century English socialite painter, used red to make pink for the skin tones in his paintings. Now his subjects have ghostly pale faces due to the pink tones fully faded.
HEX Code for Cochineal Red #9D232D
The red colour was used for cardinal red robes in the Roman Catholic Church, and later it was adopted by British Army officers. The British Army was nicknamed the “Red Coats.” As a cluster, the bright red colour was overwhelming on the battlefield.
Around the 1870s, Alizarin red was the new synthetic dye that took over the use of cochineal red dye overnight. It was more affordable and available for broader use.
When was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed?
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were formed many years ago. They originated from a group called the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 to police the North-West Territories, which are now present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta. They didn’t wear the bright red coats that we see them wear today; they wore rancher clothes when on patrol. Their duties were to ride across the land and police the area from smugglers, thievery and other types of crimes that would occur. For example, they would enforce prohibition laws, customs dues and prairie fires, disease and destitution. When the country was the first to the takeover of Rupert’s Land, they started to impose Canadian governance on Indigenous land and deter the expansion of the American frontier movement in the 1870s, all based on the English legal system. The first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, adapted the format of the Royal Irish Constabulary as the model to use in Canada. They also assisted in settlement processes, ensured the welfare of immigrants and supervised the treaties between First Nations and the federal government. Their jurisdiction grew to include the Yukon in 1895, the Arctic Coast in 1903 and Northern Manitoba in 1912. The service was supposed to be temporary to maintain the order of the land and then disband.
The big craze that sparked the extra enforcement of people was the gold rush on the west coast of Canada and the U.S.A. Many people flocked to Canada to make it big in gold. Canadian Mounties, like Sam Steele, established law, order and Yukon Canadian sovereignty during the late 1890s Klondike Gold Rush.
The North-West Mounted Police would be on horseback, so their clothes would be fit for equestrian work for the whole day. The cavalry regiment was armed with short pistols, short-barreled rifles (carbines) and artillery pieces. They wore pants that would be fitted wider for riding. The hats were wide-brimmed, and the jackets were mid-thigh length.
In 1904, the name changed to the Royal North West Mounted Police, then rebranded in 1930 as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when they absorbed the Dominion Police. It was when they could enforce federal law in all provinces and territories, while at the beginning, they interfered with Indigenous customs and laws for the first time.
The RCMP is also called the Red Serge because of the scarlet British-style tunic. On February 1st, 1920, the red serge became more of a recognized Canadian symbol and its connection to the British military uniform, “Red Coats”. The Cochineal red was, at the time, a symbol of British power. The red in the coats was initially made for quick production and was cheaper than wormberry. Wormberry dye had issues with production and delivery time from merchant pirates. The dye was composed of madder and cochineal red for the bright red look. Officers preferred the bright red cochineal for their uniforms, but started to receive Alizarin madder red from the British government because it was cheaper. The “Red Coat” uniform was retired during the Second Boer War when the British used khaki uniforms for better camouflage. It also separated them from the American Cavaliers, who wore blue.
The appearance of the Mountie is a person in a bright red tunic fashioned in British military attire, completed in a pair of Jodhpurs, tight-fitting trousers with a yellow strapping (the stripe on the side), brown leather riding boots, a flat, wide-brimmed felt campaign hat and a Sam Browne strap belt. The person sits upon a black horse, also in British-inspired military attire. The wide pants, nicknamed the “banana pants,” are also worn for more formal occasions. Until 1990, female RCMP members would wear long skirts and black shoes instead of horseback riding pants and boots. An early version of the red tunic was the Norfolk jacket that had loose pleats and a line of buttons with a belt.
The red tunic is more of a special occasion military dress than an everyday attire for policing duties. The everyday attire is a brown or blue uniform, depending on the type of work. The first usage of the name “Mountie” came from the phrase “The Mounties always gets their man,” used in an American newspaper in 1877 about the arrest of three whiskey smugglers caught by law enforcement under the leadership of Major Irvine and Captain Winder. Then, by Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee when the red tunics were first worn by the North-West Mounted Police in 1897 in British newspapers. The Red Serge Mountie in media was used as a marketing tool since the 1880s on promotional illustrations and postcards to advertise the country. Since the 1870s, the RCMP has been doing training drills, which eventually developed from horseback riding skills to fine dining skills. The cost per uniform is approximately $3,500 per uniform, which is fitted with 121 items, including the red tunic and other apparel, a part of the uniform.
In Media
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Mounties were romanticized figures of law enforcement, playing the romantic interest and being the overtly capable man on duty. The combination of interest in travelling and exploring the Canadian landscape, the growing Canadian identity with the romanticized character of the Mountie, made the 1920s Mountie movie craze popular. The Mountie was dressed in regalia that was similar to the red tunics, but they were usually always wearing the red tunics in every mission and not really dressed in their other uniforms. These films also portrayed the Mountie, a Canadian symbol, through an American perspective; therefore, a lot of the characteristics of the Mounties in these films are not really realistic, inaccurate, and possibly culturally insensitive for 575 Canadiana musicals. In short, they can be very tacky and easily mockable, with the Mountie character being overly polite. During the 1960s, the animated series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show parodied the 1920s character in Dudley-Do-Right.
The original theatrical trailer to “Rose Marie.” The remake of the 1939 film was the first CinemaScope musical is based on the Broadway play. Rose Maire was the longest-running stage musical before Show Boat. Source: YouTube: Warner Bros. Classics
But the Mountie on screen still have the characteristics of the overly polite, to-the-book, hardened, strict police officer like the 1920s. Only in modern cinema and television shows, like Constable Benton Fraser from the ’90s crime comedy-drama Due South and Constable Jack Thornton from the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart, they start to look like real people within Canadian-made productions.
The Legacy of the Dye
The Cochineal dye is still in use today. It’s added to food to make it look redder and appealing. Traces of cochineal red colorfast pigment have been used in alcoholic drinks like Campari, cosmetics, artisan paints, sweet foods like candies and jams, wool yarns, and even Strawberry Frappuccinos. The red dye goes by its chemical name E120. Cochineal red dye is regarded as a safer red dye since it derives from a natural resource.
The synthetic dye of Cochineal red is called Red Dye E120. It can be found in maraschino cherries, lipstick, yogurt, juices, sausages, and naturally dyed yarns. Unlike other toxic red dyes facing scrutiny due to the ill effects of the synthetic byproduct, people have returned to using more Cochineal Red because it is naturally sourced.
Banner Credit: This was at the regimental Funeral of Constable John Davidson of the Abbotsford Police Department. November 20th, 2017, on Unsplash by Nic Amaya with some Photoshop modifications.
Reference:
Finlay, Victoria. “Cochineal Red.” The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Getty Publications, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2014, pp. 50–52.
St. Clair, Kassia. “Cochineal .” The Secret Lives of Colour, John Murray (Publishers), London, UK, 2016, pp. 141–143.
Gillford, Clive. “Color from Catcus Creatures: Cochineal.” The Colors of History, Quarto Publishing Inc., Lake Forest, CA, USA, 2018, pp. 22–23.
“Red.” The Secret Language of Color, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York City, NY, USA, 2013, pp. 38–42.
Under The Moonlight 
The colour red is an iconic colour that was often used for royalty and battle. The colour is associated with passion and war. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s red tunic jacket is iconic. The influence of the red coats comes from the early days of the Dominion of Canada and the British military regime.
Cochineal Red
The dye they used was from the Cochineal bug (Dactylopius coccus). They are mostly found around Mexico and South America. The bugs would be found on the warmer side of cacti (most likely on the prickly pear a.k.a. Opuntia) in white clusters where they were picked off by dyers. The bugs would be dried in the sun, then crushed and ground up to be a bright red that would be collected for dying. This dye is often called carmine. The dye makers would use alum to help the colours stick to the clothing. They would use acids or metals, like tin, to shift the colour from a pale pink to blackish red. The number of cochineal insects it takes for a single pound of colour is 70,000 bugs. The red created was the bright red.
Early American civilizations, such as the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Incas, used the red colour to paint and dye robes. It was used as gifts for tribes and communities within the Aztec and Inca empires. The Aztecs received 40 sacks from Mixtec people yearly and 20 bags from the Zapotecs every 80 days. Many Inca rulers and other South American rulers have died because of cochineal. The red colour was also used as a coded communication among other Incas. Dyed knotted cords were used to communicate messages within their complex writing system. The knots on the cord were called quipu, with messages about time, money, gods and armies encrypted within the dyed knots on the cord. Black knots meant time, yellow knots meant money, blue knots meant gods, and red knots meant the Inca army.
When the Spaniard conquistadors invaded Mexico in 1519 discovered the cochineal Aztec markets. They then took over the cochineal production and supply. They sent their “trade secret” dye back to Europe. The red dye became the most valuable product to come from the Americas, next to gold and silver. In 1587, 72 tons of cochineal bugs were exported from Peru to Spain for the Spanish Empire. By the 18th century, the dye was used for Venetian velvets, funded the Dutch dye industry, fashioned the red robes of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, and gave rosy cheeks and medicinal use. The colour compound travelled over Europe, Cambodia, Thailand and China.
The dye produced a strong scarlet colour, which was associated with being a symbol of power in European societies. The colour was long-lasting, intense, rare and expensive. The paint mixed with reds like vermilion made a rich cherry-red glaze. But lake reds from cochineal red faded when exposed to light. Joshua Reynolds, an 18th-century English socialite painter, used red to make pink for the skin tones in his paintings. Now his subjects have ghostly pale faces due to the pink tones fully faded.
#9D232D
The red colour was used for cardinal red robes in the Roman Catholic Church, and later it was adopted by British Army officers. The British Army was nicknamed the “Red Coats.” As a cluster, the bright red colour was overwhelming on the battlefield.
Around the 1870s, Alizarin red was the new synthetic dye that took over the use of cochineal red dye overnight. It was more affordable and available for broader use.
When was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed?
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were formed many years ago. They originated from a group called the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 to police the North-West Territories, which are now present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta. They didn’t wear the bright red coats that we see them wear today; they wore rancher clothes when on patrol. Their duties were to ride across the land and police the area from smugglers, thievery and other types of crimes that would occur. For example, they would enforce prohibition laws, customs dues and prairie fires, disease and destitution. When the country was the first to the takeover of Rupert’s Land, they started to impose Canadian governance on Indigenous land and deter the expansion of the American frontier movement in the 1870s, all based on the English legal system. The first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, adapted the format of the Royal Irish Constabulary as the model to use in Canada. They also assisted in settlement processes, ensured the welfare of immigrants and supervised the treaties between First Nations and the federal government. Their jurisdiction grew to include the Yukon in 1895, the Arctic Coast in 1903 and Northern Manitoba in 1912. The service was supposed to be temporary to maintain the order of the land and then disband.
The big craze that sparked the extra enforcement of people was the gold rush on the west coast of Canada and the U.S.A. Many people flocked to Canada to make it big in gold. Canadian Mounties, like Sam Steele, established law, order and Yukon Canadian sovereignty during the late 1890s Klondike Gold Rush.
The North-West Mounted Police would be on horseback, so their clothes would be fit for equestrian work for the whole day. The cavalry regiment was armed with short pistols, short-barreled rifles (carbines) and artillery pieces. They wore pants that would be fitted wider for riding. The hats were wide-brimmed, and the jackets were mid-thigh length.
In 1904, the name changed to the Royal North West Mounted Police, then rebranded in 1930 as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when they absorbed the Dominion Police. It was when they could enforce federal law in all provinces and territories, while at the beginning, they interfered with Indigenous customs and laws for the first time.
The RCMP is also called the Red Serge because of the scarlet British-style tunic. On February 1st, 1920, the red serge became more of a recognized Canadian symbol and its connection to the British military uniform, “Red Coats”. The Cochineal red was, at the time, a symbol of British power. The red in the coats was initially made for quick production and was cheaper than wormberry. Wormberry dye had issues with production and delivery time from merchant pirates. The dye was composed of madder and cochineal red for the bright red look. Officers preferred the bright red cochineal for their uniforms, but started to receive Alizarin madder red from the British government because it was cheaper. The “Red Coat” uniform was retired during the Second Boer War when the British used khaki uniforms for better camouflage. It also separated them from the American Cavaliers, who wore blue.
The appearance of the Mountie is a person in a bright red tunic fashioned in British military attire, completed in a pair of Jodhpurs, tight-fitting trousers with a yellow strapping (the stripe on the side), brown leather riding boots, a flat, wide-brimmed felt campaign hat and a Sam Browne strap belt. The person sits upon a black horse, also in British-inspired military attire. The wide pants, nicknamed the “banana pants,” are also worn for more formal occasions. Until 1990, female RCMP members would wear long skirts and black shoes instead of horseback riding pants and boots. An early version of the red tunic was the Norfolk jacket that had loose pleats and a line of buttons with a belt.
The red tunic is more of a special occasion military dress than an everyday attire for policing duties. The everyday attire is a brown or blue uniform, depending on the type of work. The first usage of the name “Mountie” came from the phrase “The Mounties always gets their man,” used in an American newspaper in 1877 about the arrest of three whiskey smugglers caught by law enforcement under the leadership of Major Irvine and Captain Winder. Then, by Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee when the red tunics were first worn by the North-West Mounted Police in 1897 in British newspapers. The Red Serge Mountie in media was used as a marketing tool since the 1880s on promotional illustrations and postcards to advertise the country. Since the 1870s, the RCMP has been doing training drills, which eventually developed from horseback riding skills to fine dining skills. The cost per uniform is approximately $3,500 per uniform, which is fitted with 121 items, including the red tunic and other apparel, a part of the uniform.
In Media
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Mounties were romanticized figures of law enforcement, playing the romantic interest and being the overtly capable man on duty. The combination of interest in travelling and exploring the Canadian landscape, the growing Canadian identity with the romanticized character of the Mountie, made the 1920s Mountie movie craze popular. The Mountie was dressed in regalia that was similar to the red tunics, but they were usually always wearing the red tunics in every mission and not really dressed in their other uniforms. These films also portrayed the Mountie, a Canadian symbol, through an American perspective; therefore, a lot of the characteristics of the Mounties in these films are not really realistic, inaccurate, and possibly culturally insensitive for 575 Canadiana musicals. In short, they can be very tacky and easily mockable, with the Mountie character being overly polite. During the 1960s, the animated series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show parodied the 1920s character in Dudley-Do-Right.
Source: YouTube: Warner Bros. Classics
But the Mountie on screen still have the characteristics of the overly polite, to-the-book, hardened, strict police officer like the 1920s. Only in modern cinema and television shows, like Constable Benton Fraser from the ’90s crime comedy-drama Due South and Constable Jack Thornton from the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart, they start to look like real people within Canadian-made productions.
The Legacy of the Dye
The Cochineal dye is still in use today. It’s added to food to make it look redder and appealing. Traces of cochineal red colorfast pigment have been used in alcoholic drinks like Campari, cosmetics, artisan paints, sweet foods like candies and jams, wool yarns, and even Strawberry Frappuccinos. The red dye goes by its chemical name E120. Cochineal red dye is regarded as a safer red dye since it derives from a natural resource.
The synthetic dye of Cochineal red is called Red Dye E120. It can be found in maraschino cherries, lipstick, yogurt, juices, sausages, and naturally dyed yarns. Unlike other toxic red dyes facing scrutiny due to the ill effects of the synthetic byproduct, people have returned to using more Cochineal Red because it is naturally sourced.
Banner Credit: This was at the regimental Funeral of Constable John Davidson of the Abbotsford Police Department. November 20th, 2017, on Unsplash by Nic Amaya with some Photoshop modifications.
Reference:
Finlay, Victoria. “Cochineal Red.” The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Getty Publications, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2014, pp. 50–52.
St. Clair, Kassia. “Cochineal .” The Secret Lives of Colour, John Murray (Publishers), London, UK, 2016, pp. 141–143.
Gillford, Clive. “Color from Catcus Creatures: Cochineal.” The Colors of History, Quarto Publishing Inc., Lake Forest, CA, USA, 2018, pp. 22–23.
“Red.” The Secret Language of Color, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York City, NY, USA, 2013, pp. 38–42.
National Police Federation – History of the Red Serge
Access Heritage – The Victorian Soldier: History and Uniform of the North West Mounted Police, 1873-1904
Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Our Image
Royal Canadian Mounted Police – RCMP Origin Story
Colonial Williamsburg – Putting the Red in Redcoats
Voyages Extraordinaires – Rose Marie, Renfrew, and the Canadian Mountie on Film
Video: Business Insider – What Canadian Mounties Go Through At Boot Camp
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