Question to the hat experts..

[Wild Billy Potts]

The Boss of the Plains had a 4 inch crown, that one looks like a 6 inch.

Can't see to crown in the Ike Clanton picture, but you could be right, haven't watched the movie in years.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Joey Guns......

Here you go....this hat could be made into the Ike Clanton hat very easily. This is the Scout hat from River Junction Trade Company.
As far as the turned up brim...that can be done by steaming or, do as I do and spend a lot of time on horse back and let mother nature take its course.

Bill

[Delmonico]

Looks like a good one for that from here also.  I don't have anything near right on color. 

As Bill said, steaming is easy and it can be resteamed straightened and try again if you don't get it like you want the first time.  Nice thing is, hand shaping unlike the moden machine pressing is easy to remove and it looks far more period.

Or heck, copy that picture and head up this way, be glad to shape it and meet you.

[Delmonico]

I spent a couple hours in the Butcher Collection, put this together, contains a crosssection of folks fron Central Nebraska in the 1880's to around the turn of the century, men on the streets in tows, settlers and cowboys.  Not a bad collection of hats well beyond their prime, plenty more there if anyone wants to seach them out,  These ain't "I just got paid off and bought new duds" studio pictures, but folks as candid as the cameras of the era allowed.

Now I will not be one to inply that all men who wore hats wore hats in the condition that if you brought them to me at work, I would declare them DOA, fact is if anyone wants to send me a fee, I'd be glad to do the same out of the collection of nice looking hats. Sometimes folks try to put the times in a "this is the way things always were" mould.  I've found out that is a big mistake.

[Wild Billy Potts]

Some of those hats don't look too bad, and some of them look as you describe, DOA. This picture brings to mind an old CW discussion from years ago as to whether or not they wore their hats as they did for pictures of whether they moved them back on their heads so their faces could be more easily seen in the images. Some of these guys barely have the hats on their heads.

[Leo Tanner]

Remember, in the military photos, those hats were issued.  A good bet that the rest of the oufit didn't fit just right either.  Pants too short (hidden by boots) and shirts too long in the sleeve gathered up with cords were common.  The hats in the collage seem ta fit well other than the millitary photo.  Just an obseration.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Del......
Good selection of hats...I know its a lot of work, but I think it would have been a good idea to have separated them into who actually wore them ie; Towny, Cowboy, Farmer, Merchant, and the year if possible.

Styles that were in vogue in 1860, 65, 70, 75 weren't gonna be the same as in 1885-90-1900, unless you were very impoverished and wore them until they fell apart. But that would have only have happened in certain class structures.

Bill

[Delmonico]

Yep it would have been Bill and a good research project for this winter. when I have a bit more time, like a snowed in day.  But for now I wanted to show that not all hats were well maintained and a source of pride, but rather a tool of the working man to keep the rain and sun off their heads.

But if anyone else wants to check these out, the site is:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

With many other collections that can be reached through the American Memory home page.

[Delmonico]

Some of those hats don't look too bad, and some of them look as you describe, DOA. This picture brings to mind an old CW discussion from years ago as to whether or not they wore their hats as they did for pictures of whether they moved them back on their heads so their faces could be more easily seen in the images. Some of these guys barely have the hats on their heads.

As someone who cleans, shapes and does other hat maintenance as part of there job, I only picked hats that to my eye, looked like they were beyond being restored to pristine by normal means.  (There are others, but are not commonly seen and the cost is beyond what most hats are worth.  This starts with a solvent clean similar to dry cleaning.) 

What they remind me most of, other that the basic shape they started out with is the works hats worn by cowboys today.  (I mean the real thing that work cattle for a living from a horse.)

As for the hat tipped back in pictures, I've never really seen that question by folks who are used to wearing hats, they know that those hats are pushed back on the head to expose light to the face, and to uncover more of the face for the photo.

[Pinto Jim]

I bought a Resistol 4x at the national highschool rodeo finals in 1986, I still wear it to this day, noo as much as I used to but quite a bit. It has been shaped by monsoon rains, and blazing heat, not too mention a few hooves and inattentive travelling partners. My dad also wore this hat when it was new when i rode so it wouldn't get mussed up too bad, unfortunatley he passed away 6 months after finals, that hat , a pair of Tony Lama boots  is about all thats left of his and I will keep and wear  both til I die. The hat isnt period correct , but it reflects life and use, thats what most of the old time hats represented at least imho.

[Delmonico]

I have another collection one can go to if one wants to look at hats during the Civil War era:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

Mostly Brady photos taken during the war, but lots of civilians ended up in some of the pictures if you are willing to search.  (Looking at each and every picture is the best way.  On it and the Butcher collection type "glass plate negative for a search and be sure to add a couple 0's to the amount of pictures the search will bring up or you'll just get a 100 on both.)

Like the Butcher collection it is mostly scans from the negatives and has fantastic resaloution for study. 

A lot of prints have been touched up over the years, the famous "Billy the Kid" one being one that comes to mind.  I hope to find a collection or two scanned from the negatives that fill in the time gap.  If anyone knows of any let me know.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Nash.....
Both of my kids rode high school rodeo in the 80's & early 90's, when were you riding. I did some armature bull riding as a young dumb kid on each of my three uncles farms in Kentucky as all my cousins did in the late 50's and 60's. These were wild pasture bulls used mainly for breeding...always pissed off about something. Been so long I couldn't tell you what kind of bulls. Never wore a hat though,,,no boots...probably just a pair of jeans...

Bill

[Pinto Jim]

my last year of Highschool rodeo was 87 broke my arm so didnt get to ride at finals that year. hehe I used to do the same thing with our pasture bulls , jus tjump on em and see how long i could go.

[Kentuckian]

The hat by Tim Allen that I talked about in my above post. The one that I've worked in for years and years in all kinds of weather. Still holds it's shape.