HISTORY OF THE WESTERN HAT
Western hats also known as "cowboy hats" go back to almost the inception of the cowboy himself. Westerners originally had no standard headwear. People moving west wore many styles of hats, including top hats, derbies, remains of Civil War headwear, sailor hats and everything else. The working cowboy worewide-brimmed, high crowned hats long before the creation of the modern design western hat. We must give credit to the invention of the cowboy hat as it is known today to John Batterson Stetson.
The original western hat called "Boss of the Plains" was manufactured by Stetson in 1865. It was flat brimmed, had a straight sided crown, with rounded corners. These light weight, waterproof hats were natural in color, with four inch brims and crowns. A plain hatband was fitted to adjust the head size. While making only one style western hat, they came in different qualities ranging from one-grade materials at five dollars a hat, to pure beaver felt hats for thirty dollars each. Stetson was the first to market these these western hats to cowboys. It has remained the universal image of the American West.
Ornamentation such as buckles, bows and feathers were attached to the left side of the hats. Historically this had a practical purpose. Because the majority of people are right handed, bows and feathers on the right side could interfere with the use of a weapon.
If you look inside a western hat you will see a bow, it is a memorial to past hatters that developed brain damage from treating felt with toxic mercury. Their bodies absorbed the mercury, and after several years of making hats, the hatters developed violent and
uncontrollable muscle twitching. In those times people attributed these strang gyrations to madness, hence, the expression "Mad Hatter", not mercury.
The modern western hat has remained basically unchanged in construction and design since the Stetson creation. The western cowboy hat quickly developed the capability, even and the early years, to identify it's wearer as someone associated with the west. The shape of the hat's crown and brim are often modified by the wearer for fashion and to protect against the sun and weather by being softened with hot steam, shaped and allowed to cool. Felt tends to stay in the shape it cools and dries. Creases in the cowboy hats crown and brim shape give western hats individual character, and helps make a western hat a part of the wearers personality and attitude.
Western hats will always be part of American culture and western history.