Hats?????

[Chuck Burrows]

Now for some hat pics"

Pierre by AJ Miller


Californio hat - looks like straw maybe? circa 1840-50's


This early sombrero reminds me of this Josiah Greeg quote:
"This generally consists of a sombrero — a peculiarly shaped low crowned hat with wide brim, covered with oil cloth and surmounted with a band of tinsel cord nearly an inch in diameter

pic is circa 1830-40's

Another original in a Utah museum


Besides Edward Robinson, an early RMFT hunter who lost his hair in Ky and his life in the Rockies at age 66 (for more on Ed search for Robinson, Hoback, and Reznor), there are only some vague references in the RMFT "library" for wearing headscarfs, but then again lots of handkerchiefs show up on the trade lists:
G. F. Ruxton 1846 - " Ruxton of the Rockies"
“Finally, many men simply tied a handkerchief around their heads. If the cloth was big enough, this would be done as a turban, open at the top”

Karl Bodmer's "Hunting the Grizzly Bear" the hunter on shore is wearing a "pirate" style headcloth tied in the back.

[pathfinder]

Chuck and Lloyd

Great references!

Doug

[Mark]

Straw hats: one of the version of AJ Miller's "The Bouregois" (I think that is how you spell it) of Joseph Walker and his bride looks to be a straw hat. Then to they were available in Taos and Sante Fe, although from what I read they had canvas(?) covering the crown. But the version we see today (the palm hats) probably is not the same. I do like mine, though, because of the wider brim.

[Librarian]

How do!

A mainproblem with mdoern straw hats is that a machine makes a continuous "weave" that the hat is formed out of...

as compared to the earlier method of rows of plaited "straw" being butted side by side, and tacked together.

[buckskin billy]

howdy yall,

here is a style hat seen in many miller paintings that i made for my self



it is made from brain tan buckskin with a red felt trim. i made it from a pattern that r.a. norman had in muzzleloader magazine years ago.
it is rather large to my head and cumbersom to wear. after seeing a painting on the cover of muzzleloader showing a trapper wearing one tied to his head i added strings to mine made from brain tan scraps and tied it to my head in the same fashion. it is very comfortable for me to wear that way and it just can't be beat on a winter day as my ears are warm and snug inside.
here is another picture of me wearing it tied on after i added some bead work. sorry for some of the non period correct back ground this was taken while me and my pards where trapping and we had some guess show up to see how we do things and some non period correct things leaked into our camp

[windy]

i'm kinda fond o' thet tall sombrero thet hostler in several o' th' bodmer sketches is wearin'...looks like sumpin' ye'd see in a hatfields vs. m'coys cartoon, but i got one purty sim'lar thet come outta th' wild west show period & i like t'wear it to irk th' thread-counters. heard a ol' yarn 'bout a trapper thet wore a skunkskin fer a hat, but he quit when he got jumped by a paint'er--accordin' to th' story, them's th' onliest critters thet got a taste fer skunk meat!
mind yer topknots! windy

[Julius]

Here is an awnser I gave to a question about wheel hats on another forum

The Mexican American war was fought from '46 to '48

But the wheel hat was in use by tthe US army in the early 40's. At that point in time it was known as the Model 39 forage cap. This hat did not last long as it was soon realized that it was an impracticle piece of head gear. No shade or protection form the rain. The visor was the only use full part of the hat. During the time it was used by the army, flintlocks were still in use but being fased out for the percusion locked models '41 and '42. (The '41 was a rifle in .54 then later bored to .58 and the '42 was a smooth bore in 69 cal.)
Hold on I am getting off track.
The visor was used as a shield against flash burns from flintlocks. In the verious military mannuels of the time it instructs infantry to slightly tilt thier heads forward and to right as they pull the trigger thus putting the small visor between them and the flash in the pan. Sure you couldnt see your target but at that point in time it wasnt about accuracy but mass of fire.

The wheel hat / mechanics cap has been around in one form or another since the 1820's.

I wear a tarred wheel cap while doing an 1850's blacksmith impression. I love the wheel hat but it is impractible for outdoor wear. They offer little to no shade and dont do much against rain either. Mechanics of the mid 19th century wore them to keep metal shavings out of thier hair while working.

Was that long enough awnser for ya?

[jeffp]

You guys have covered this pretty well already, but I'll add in my 2 cents;
depending of course WHERE you are in the fur trade: Upper Missouri, Rockies,
PacNW or Southwest, your head gear would likely reflect that region.
Like somebody already mentioned you saw a lot more "mechanic" style hats on the upper missouri & in the NW because of the British/French influence, and the wolf earred caps stayed more or less in the Rocky Mountain region.

One thing I did notice was that when I was researching fur trade hats;
I kept mine confined to the 1830 period, was that most of them in the drawings
and paintings were light colored, either white or an off white to olive green/brown,
with short crowns and brims.

I had Tim Bender do my hat, and if I was going to do it
again, I'd make my brim even shorter than I did the 1st time, by about an inch.
I used Miller, Bodmer & Deas as visual source material.

[Rod]

Can we see a pic?

You're right about time, and especially, place. I've read the comment in a period account, that the peaked hat (or mechanic's cap) was so common among the clerks of the NWCo. as to be considered almost a piece of uniform (wish I could remember that source). And, of course, we have several illustrations (Moncrevie, Kurz) showing them in use on the Upper Missouri from the 1830s right through into the 1850s.

I don't know that the wolf-eared hat can be confined to the Rocky Mountains, however. Rindisbacher shows them in use by the natives and Red River métis in the 1820s. There's also another illustration of an early missionary in Canada, the engagé in the illustration clearly is wearing a wolf-eared hat---1820s, I think----the pic is in Van Kirk, Sylvia; Many Tender Ties.

Rod

[Rod]

By the way, the guy in my avatar is François Lucie, painted in 1848. He's wearing a peaked or mechanic's hat, but heavily decorated with ostrich feathers and colored tape or braid, the height of métis fashion at the time.

Rod

[Julius]

I had Tim Bender do my hat

,

Tim Bender makes fine hats.
I do have a problem with then though. If you look under the sweat band he writes bible verses and draws a jesus fish. And he dose it in blue ball point. I have several of his hats and just recently discovered this. the next hat I order from him I am going to tell him not to write in the sweat band

[pathfinder]

Oct 3, 2010 19:01:31 GMT -7 Julius said:

I had Tim Bender do my hat

,

Tim Bender makes fine hats.
I do have a problem with then though. If you look under the sweat band he writes bible verses and draws a jesus fish. And he dose it in blue ball point. I have several of his hats and just recently discovered this. the next hat I order from him I am going to tell him not to write in the sweat band

Really??? Cool! I have three of his hats and didn't notice! Next time I order a hat from him, I'll tell him thanks for the blessing!

........................dang it I checked my hats and he didn't write a verse or a fish in mine..........he must have stopped doing it! Probably someone complained!
I've been robbed!

[sean]

Folks,

Lets keep this to a discussion on hats.

Sean

[jeffp]

Rod- are you sure the Rendisbacher(sp) hats he's depicting are wolf eared caps?
The great lakes indians had a type of wool hood that looks very similar to the wolf eared cap, except the "ears" are not as pronounced as the RM wolf eared hats
depicted by Miller & etc.

I'll try and find a photo of me and my hat that Tim B made me, but like I said,
If I had some extra cash to do it again I'd get a lighter color and make the brim
about an inch smaller.

[Chuck Burrows]

I've got two of Tim's hats as well. The first one I ordered the Pecan since it looked close to drab (light yellowis brown) but when I got it the color was more of a dark brown. Tim then offered to make another in Sahara (at 1/2 price) and that is cloes to what is commonly know as silver belly aka natural and is I nice light color for wearing here in the high up SW where the sun is very intense. The first one I turned into a more Spanish Colonial style and will wear it in the winter.

As to brim widths - there are a couple of written references that mention 5" brim widths which I personally like but since I've got an extra large head the biggest Tim could get out of his blanks with a 4" crown was 4 1/2". 4-5" also is what most of the hats worn by the Nuevo Mexicanos and Californios appear to wearing in art work of the period - see the two pics I posted above.
Anyway I reckon there was enough variation in sizes and style to pretty much fit what rings your chimes.....