What Did Wyatt Earp Look Like on March 23, 1882?

[Bob Boze Bell]

April 9, 2012

Worked over the weekend on a variety of Wyatt Earp imagery, including this sketch of Wyatt Earp on March 23, 1882.

 

This is against type. We expect to see him in a black hat, coat and tie. See, here's the thing. Everybody thinks Wyatt Earp walked around in a black suit ALL THE TIME. He is typecast with this because of the photographs of him. Earp always viewed himself as a Sporting Man, not as a cowboy or a gunfighter (and by the way, did you know Stuart Lake's original title for his seminal book was "Frontier Gunfighter" before Josie Earp had a hissy fit and forced him to change it to "Frontier Marshal"?), so Earp dressed up for the saloons and the photographer. Granted on the beach in Alaska he's dressed in a suit but I think he had a different outfit for the trail and on March 23, 1882, Wyatt and Doc and several others were riding into the Babocomari foothills looking for Curly Bill Brocius and others. The proof of Wyatt's head gear is George Parsons, a friend of Earps and a banker by trade in Tombstone. He has photographs taken in formal wear, but he also has a couple photographs of himself taken in the style of clothing he wore outside of town. Big difference.

 

I have a hunch Wyatt Earp was dressed more in this style, with a light, broad-brimmed hat and he probably had a neckerchief, as was the style then, even though I haven't shown him with that—yet. But I will.

 

Meanwhile, here are a couple sketches of Earp extrapolating from the screen captures I took of "The Lawman."

 

 

And here is another page of sketches emulating Charles Dana Gibson (he immortalized The Gibson Girl and was a monster illustrator and I'm a huge fan).

 

"The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.'

—T.S. Elliott

 

 

 

[John R Wice]

I think you are right on Bob. He would be going out on the trail, no town clothes. broad brimmed hat, bandana and a duster probably, none of them black.  He would be sullen, this is March 23, 1882, his brother Morgan was murdered only a few days before.  He was about to bigin the vendetta.

[anthony martin]

  Bob,

    Nice to see you ringing the sartorial changes with ol' Wyatt.He was known as something of a well tailored fancy clothes horse during his San Francisco days-striped pants,spats,silk braided coats and vests etc.And I'm sure he dressed just as  well when dealing cards at Tombstone.There's a description of his brother Virgil wearing a blue diagonal worsted frock coat and vest with striped trousers in grey,brown and blue,again pretty much a respectable townie's business uniform.Morgan was buried in one of Doc's tailored suits,undoubtedly because his best suit  got ruined when he was assassinated.

   One of the biggest hurdles that I face when clothing re enactors is to get them to think about employing color and pattern.I always show them fabric samples in original tailoring folios to get them to think outside of the"black suit" box.About a month ago I finished a careful copy of an original Ben Thompson suit,a glen plaid in olive,rust and blue.

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

OK, Bob, now you've put yourself four square on the opposite side of a prominent hat maker on the subject of Wyatt Earp's taste in hats. See the clip below. The hat honcho says that marshals like Earp and Masterson distrusted men in wide brimmed hats, but doesn't give any source for this conclusion. Lacking that, I'm with you; Earp and Masterson may not have had great love for cowboys, having to keep them from getting too wild and wooly, but that doesn't prove that they wouldn't have worn sombrero-ish headgear out on the trail.

[Bob Boze Bell]

I think that is true: large hats equaled a trouble maker. Still does. Ha. I know this is splitting hairs, but I don't see Earp in a big sombrero, the kind Curly Bill would gravitate to, but I do think Earp would wear something with a little more shade on the trail. Something in between. I think there is a good shot of Bill Tilghman wearing a medium sized brim and that is what I envision Earp wearing.

[James Allder]

This, is interesting.  :)

[Bob Boze Bell]

Hey John, Anthony and Murray, just found a photo of Al Sieber I had never seen before. Taken in 1880 at Camp Verde with his Apache scouts. THIS is the hat I picture Earp wearing. I'll have sketches in the morning.

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

Looks like a troublemaker to me! :)

[John R Wice]

Cool Bob, I would imagine that would be about the size brim Earp would wear, something around a 4 1/2  to 6 1/2 inch brim.  Not the super wide 8 to 10 inch brim.  There are several picture of George Parsons wearing a fairly wide brimmed hat.  The "Boss of the Plains" by Stetson was a popular hat and my copy only has a 6 1/2 inch brim.  Wish you could find a picture of Bob Paul in that era.