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Amon Carter Borsalino; Stetson Shady Oak Farm; Peters Bros Shady Oaks, Bankers Special & Shady Pines

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18,060
The Amon Carter Borsalino; Stetson Shady Oak Farm; Peters Bros Shady Oaks, Bankers Special & Shady Pines hats.

This thread is for pictures, the documentation & preservation of the above listed hats. Information is scattered throughout various threads & needs to be consolidated here. There doesn't seem to be a lot of hats so this may not get many posts. That's why I'm asking for the help of all owners & former owners (@buler, @carouselvic, @jimmy the lid) for your help. I'll open by quoting a great paragraph from a 2008 post by Jimmy the Lid, which helps to begin establishing a timeline & some order. The bold highlighting below is mine.

QUOTE:
"An excellent source of information on this topic is a book by Jerry Flemmons entitled Amon: The Texan who Played Cowboy for America. According to Flemmons, the hats passed out to dignitaries visiting Carter's Shady Oak Farm were originally supplied by Borsalino. These hats were rather large, wide-brimmed and high-crowned, as reflected in some early photos. After Mussolini declared war on Ethiopia (1935), Carter turned to Stetson to produce hats for him. Flemmons reports that "after months of design research," Stetson began producing the Shady Oak Open Road. In a previous post here on the Lounge, Jimmy Pierce has noted that Tom Peters of Peters Brothers was involved in the design of the hat. According to the Peters Brothers web site, Tom Peters left Fort Worth for Philadelphia in 1921 in order to work for Stetson, where he learned his craft from Stetson's master hatters. Thus, it seems like a relationship existed between Tom Peters and Stetson that could well have served as a basis for collaboration. Jimmy Pierce also confirms that the hats resulting from Tom Peters' design efforts were produced by Stetson. According to Flemmons, Amon Carter "bought them through Washer Brothers, an old-line Fort Worth store, and later through Peters Brothers, a downtown hat shop." Flemmons estimates that, at the very least, Amon Carter gave away "many, many thousands" of Shady Oak hats. Apparently, Hat Life magazine proclaimed Carter the "world's greatest retail hat customer."
END QUOTE

And I'll close for now with a pic of the Stetson Shady Oak Farm hat presented by Amon Carter to fellow Texan & International pianist Van Cliburn. Cliburn died in 2013 & the hat was put on display at the museum for the first time in 2019.

IMG_2153.JPG
 
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18,060
This fun fact has been repeated a few times but I traced the original source to a 2008 post made by AWOL lounger @tinmanzzz that he was told by one of the Peters they imported their hoods from Switzerland thru the 1950's & 1960's because the hoods were still being felted by the old mercury felting method.

From a PB Shady Oak Fifty, a 6X
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PB Shady Oak Bankers Special Seventy-five, 7X
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18,060
shady pine 5X Forty light gray (blue hues) when I talked to Joe Peters about it, he said 50's for a date
Thanks for posting, Vic. I remembered you having the Shady Pine. Could you comment on the dimensions & if they are more like the Shady Oak or the smaller Shady Oak Bankers Special?

Also do you have any info concerning the raw edge brims vs bound edge?
 

rclark

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,271
Location
Central Texas
Stetson 3X Shady Oak
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This hat appears to have been owned by Joseph P. Purtell, a correspondent for Time starting in the 1940s.

Since Fort Worth publishing magnate Amon Carter was known to have gifted these hats to friends, business associates, dignitaries, etc., it is likely that this hat was a gift to Mr. Purtell from Amon Carter. Mr. Purtell must not have worn this hat much if at all, as the hat is in near NOS condition.
 
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18,060
Stetson 3X Shady Oak
Don't hold back; let's see the others too!

My Stetson Shady Oak Farm is a 3X as well, which I will get around to posting here soon.

4 3/4" at the crease in front 2 3/4" for the brim
I know nothing about the Shady Oak or others, never held one.
Thanks for the measurements.
My initial theory between the PB Shady Oaks & the PB Shady Oaks Bankers Special was that maybe the SOBS were all 2-1/2 brims like the Wide Country, but Bowen has a SOBS with a 3-1/4 brim I believe. Blows that theory right out of the water!
 
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18,060
Bringing this forward to consolidate it here from a mixed thread. I didn't recheck links so some may now be dead but can still serve as the original source of the information. Just as before please feel free to add to the timeline with appropriate documentation. Has anyone read any of the Amon Carter books, particularly the one mentioned by Jimmy the Lid?

-----

Attempting to put together an often conflicting timeline. If you can add to it with sources, please do so.


Amon Giles Carter (1879–1955):

A Chronology

1925

Purchases 780 acres of land along the shores of Lake Worth from the heirs of George Reynolds, a pioneer rancher. Builds a house and names the property Shady Oak; eventually installs other buildings and historical artifacts on the property to recall his early years. Over the next thirty years, Shady Oak is visited by some of the world’s richest and most famous people, including Charles Lindbergh and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Carter becomes famous for presenting his visitors with short-brim Stetsons that he dubs the “Shady Oak Hat.” If the visitor already has a hat, Carter performs a trade; in this way, he builds a collection of hats for himself.

https://www.cartermuseum.org/sites/all/files/about/acm_agc_timeline.pdf

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Fort Worth: Outpost on the Trinity

By Oliver Knight


"Not only is Amon Carter's narrow-brimmed Stetson his trade-mark, it has become an identifying mark for his cronies and the dignitaries who come to Ft. Worth. For every important guest is asked to leave his old hat behind and wear a brand new hat presented by Carter--a Shady Oak hat made of Stetson manufacture. The old hat left behind, many of them military caps, are those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Charles Lindbergh, John Garner' Otto Kahn, Robert Lovett, W. S. Knudsen, former President of General Motors, Walter McLucas, outstanding Detroit banker, Generals Eisenhower, H. H. Arnold, James Doolittle, "Tooy" Spaatz, and Jonathan Wainwright, and Admirals Stark, Halsey, and Nimitz."


"The Shady Oak hat takes its name from his farm at Lake Worth..."


https://books.google.com/books?id=K...QIAxAB#v=onepage&q=Amon Carter Stetson&f=true

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Former Star-Telegram Publisher Amon Carter Sr. came up with a Peters Bros. design known as the “Shady Oak,” sort of a cross between a Western style and a businessman’s fedora.

He bestowed them on dignitaries and celebrities who visited his ranch of the same name.

Since 1923, the hats have been given to nine presidents, ending with President Bill Clinton, Joe Peters Jr. said.


https://www.star-telegram.com/news/...-stock-show/article3842906.html#storylink=cpy

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18,060
Hopefully we can begin to see a pattern among models as more data comes in.

Peters Bros


*Shady Pine (PBSP)

PBSP Brims
PBSP Forty (5X) 2-1/2" (Bowen)
PBSP Forty (5X) 2-3/4" raw edge (1950's, carouselvic)


*Shady Oak (PBSO)

PBSO Brims
PBSO Forty (5X) raw edge (rclark)



*Shady Oak Bankers Special (PBSOBS)

PBSOBS Brims
PBSOBS Fifty (7X) 3-1/4" (Bowen)
PBSOBS Seventy-five (7X) 2-1/2" raw edge (HJ)
 

rclark

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,271
Location
Central Texas
A link to this post is a must in this thread! Check out those hat boxes at Washer Brothers!
President of Stetson, George Russell Junior, at Washer Bros. Shady Oak boxes with dimensions behind him. Second pic is clickable for larger version.

Photo dated 11/08/1940.

Dimensions read 5 1/2 x 2 5/8.

B

View attachment 163182 View attachment 163183
 
Messages
18,060
1950's - 1960's Peters Bros Shady Oak Bankers Special Seventy-five 7X. Realistically this is probably a 1960's hat due to the Swiss hood, the red liner & the inflationary price of $75 up from $50.

I would say it's somewhere in between a Western weight & a fedora dress felt. The crown is a bit softer than the brim, & the hand is very nice but not as nice as my best Stetson 7X; 2-1/2 raw edge brim X 6 open crown. I found no tags or markings behind the sweat or under the edge of the sewn in liner.

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