Inaccurate Hats In Westerns Plus Saguaro

[Bob Boze Bell]

May 11, 2012

One of the reasons I moved to Cave Creek is because of the amazing amount of saguaros in the area. I'm looking at no less than a dozen outside my office window as i type this. Got a few big bad boys on my property. Here's one of them:

 


 

Here's a photo I found this morning that I find very interesting. This is a clothing store in Black Hawk, Colorado, near Central City, and advertised as the "richest square mile on earth" in its day. The photo was take in 1878, which is quite early as it relates to our conversations about the evolution of Western Wear.

 
Note the mannequin to the left of the doorway and the "cowboy style hat" on its head, which modern day movie makers are so loathe to use because they're "inaccurate to the times." Hmmmmm.

 
"Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them."

—Joseph Joubert

[Sue Cauhape]

There're also a couple of "straw hats", one on the gentleman far left and also on the man on the right. Didn't think those came out until the 1890's or so.

[Bob Boze Bell]

Yes, the classic boater style, which does show up on the French Impressionist's heads in 1870s paintings, but didn't really arrive here until the 1890s. This photo would seem to show that the style was here earlier, but perhaps just not "popular" yet.

[Sue Cauhape]

Interesting how some styles don't take hold right away, even though the people are exposed to them. Maybe the folks in Black Hawk, CO were just a little more set in their ways than people back east or elsewhere. Or maybe they were still so overwhelmed by all the changes they had to make just getting to Black Hawk that they didn't even want to change their hats. What do you thing?

[Nicholas Narog]

Interesting info on the boater style hats. I did not realize it took so long for it to become a part of American fashion. 

Here is a cabinet card photograph taken by Furlong in Las Vegas, NM in 1889. Notice the boaters.

[anthony martin]

   You will note that  the two light colored hats look somewhat taller than an 1890's Boater or Sailor as it was also known.The style had been around for decades previous to the 1890's and one could see folks in Civil War photos wearing such hats but that said hats had different proportions in crown height and brim width.Did you also know that the style also came with either a flat stiff brim or a flexible slightly dished or concave brim?The latter style was preferred up to about the mid 1890's.Now, there is the possibility that  one or both of these are light colored felt hats and as such would have been called Porkpie hats,which were very popular from the mid century onward.

     The center hat on the half dummy would have then been perceived as a western style rather than a cowboy style.Most old catalogues  and brochures of the period address low crown wide brim hats of the Stetson Boss of the Plains configuration as cowboy hats and the hat on the figure has relationship to military and some civillian hats of the period and was often given names like The Brigadier and The Governor.Both had a taller crown(about 6 inches )and a 3 1/2-4 flanged or kettle curled brim(not as tightly rolled as a homburg brim).

   So much of the then commonly understood differences(large or subtle) in fashions has sort of melted away from our popular perception and we now tend to lump things into a few broad categories simply because we no longer employ the nomenclature that was understood and used to distinguish items then.I could cite as an example the type of frock coat on the dummy.Back then that style(straight front,short lapels,slightly rounded corners and buttoning at the top) was known as a Chesterfield frock or English walking frock,as opposed to a single breasted Prince Albert or cutaway frock.

[Sue Cauhape]

Back to the French Impressionists' influence: weren't these hats often worn by men who enjoyed the sport of boating, thus the "boater" moniker" Check out Renoir's painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party:

http://www.phillipscollection.org/collection/boating/index.aspx

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

Sue, the straw hats in that painting are a little different from the classic boater; they appear more flexible/less stiff in both brim and crown. Another Renoir painting, "Le Bal au Moulin de la Gallette,"1876, Shows men wearing what appear to be more like the classic boater, though, because of the sketchiness of the Impressionist style, it's a bit hard to be sure.

The style may have originated with the hats of Venetian gondoliers, the ribbons on which trailed down in the back like swallow tails.http://www.cjrfinearts.com

[anthony martin]

  Murray,

    The two mens hats in Nick's photo show the more popular earlier type that I was speaking of above-soft,dished brim and very often a softer,more rounded crown than the hard straw more square type that came along a bit later.Most often these were made in Milan straw,split sennet straw or coarser lacquered straw called Rough and Ready.These were also known as skimmers or sailor straw hats and have quite an old nautical association.One form of the hat with a taller crown and wider brim is still very much with us-Amish summer straw hats that look like dead ringers for mid 19th century straw hats.

[Jim Hatzell]

I've been told recently by somebody I trust....that the straw hats bought at the sutler's by Custer's 7th Cavalry actually look closer to the "straw boater" style hat than what we have been seeing in movies or paintings. I'm still checking it out.

[anthony martin]

  Jim,

    What he didn't tell you was that they were also issued striped blazers and bamboo canes  and they often rode off singing Hello,My Baby in close harmony!

   Seriously,that's pretty correct,but of the softer brimmed variety I described(per Nick's photo above).General Phillip Sheridan was often photographed in one and many other military men wore them as well.