Previous Artifacts - March 2007

 

 

Beaver Top Hat

Soon to be featured in the upcoming exhibit on the history of the fur trade, our artifact this month is a beaver top hat.  The hat has a rather flat brim with a rolled edge which is covered with a grosgrain ribbon.  A black ribbon also serves as the hat band and is secured with a small metal buckle.  There is a wide leather interior hat band, and the hat is lined with a cranberry-colored paper.  At the top of the interior the paper is stiffened and raised into a cartouche which features the United States capital building at the top and a shield with stars and stripes at the bottom. At the center of the cartouche is a gold printed label which indicates that the hat was made by Nourse, Crane & Co., at 102 Main Street in St. Louis.

 

Although we don't know much about the hat's maker, we do know a bit about its owner.  According to the donor, this elegant hat was worn by her grandfather, Daniel Hayward, when he married Sarah Ann Clark on February 24, 1858.  Daniel Hayward was born in South Easton, Massachusetts on May 28, 1829, but eventually moved west - first to Illinois and then to Sioux Falls.  He arrived here in the fall of 1877 and purchased several hundred acres of land, primarily southwest of the city.  He moved his family here permanently in 1883.

 

Once the height of fashion, by 1858 Mr. Hayward's beaver top hat was going out of style.  Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, had begun wearing silk-covered top hats in the early 1840s, creating a new popular trend that ended the reign of the beaver hat.  This had a significant impact on the American fur trade, for which the beaver had long been the most desirable and valued pelt.  To learn why beaver, in particular, was such a fashionable fur, and to see Mr. Hayward's hat, be sure to visit the Fur Trade: Top Hats, Beads, and Buffalo Hides exhibit when it opens on April 26th, 2007.