Derby Hat

‘’’Derby Hat.’’’ Black felt with satin, or satin-like material around base of crown. Not merely dirty and broken, artifact is in deplorable condition. Dates from the late 19th, early 20th century. Found in Mark and Michael’s house in Claremont, New Hampshire. 2008, c.e.

Tramp's Bowler Derby. Stiff felt with satin band. Late 20th Century, c.e.

Armies of tramps rode the rails in the 1870s and 1880s. Their high numbers got them noticed; so did their close association in the public mind with labor unions and strikes, which many saw as a crime against economic and social morality.

Many who traveled did so to work. They laid track, cut timber, dug mines, built buildings, shoveled coal, labored in factories, worked on ranches and farms, picked fruit, and flooded into the Great Plains every year to work the harvest. They did every hard and dirty job, and their mobility was a valuable asset to a national economy where labor needs rose and fell from season to season and from year to year.

Still, the first charge against the tramp was his rejection of steady work and home life. The presence along the roads and rails of “yeggs” (thugs) and beggars was another. Popular opinion got full value from its fear of the “tramp menace,” with articles and illustrations that emphasized the sensational depravity of the vagrant.

As a trend, the Derby begins its career as a stiff, nearly indestructable head-covering. Its evolution as mass produced wearing apparel included thinner, cheaper, versions which, as well as affordability, offered a more easily manipulated shell for both crown and brim. The hat could then be punched into a variety of positions and shapes. Its form then melded a more formal travelling appearance with the styling necessary for the fads associated with the open road. Eventually, it became inextricably linked with the “Hobo” image, with mid-20th-century circus clown motifs, and with nostalgia.

History

The Bowler hat was developed in 1849 for either Edward, or William Coke by the London hatters Lock & Company of St. James. The Cokes, relatives of either the first of the second Earls of Leicester had placed an order for a close-fitting, low crowned hat that would protect gamekeepers heads from low-hanging branches while on horseback, running to hounds. The hat developed by the Bowler Brothers was strong enough to withstand being stamped on by a booted foot. The hat is known as the “Billy Coke” or “Billycock” in Norfolk, England, UK. The Bowler hat is also worn by the Quechua and Aymara women in Peru and Bolivia since the 1920s when it was introduced by British railway workers.