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

This painting of Amon Carter is said to hang in the Fort Worth Club. I've always thought the hat as depicted is dimensionally more like a PBSO rather than the Stetson SOF. Does anyone know the name of the painter or the yr Carter sat for the painting? We might be able to learn something about the hat from the yr.

 

In 2017 the Stetson Shady Oak Farm given to Dwight D. Eisenhower by Amon Carter (yr unknown) came up at auction. Well worn by Eisenhower, I'm surprised it had not been refurbished. Opening bid was requested at $12,500.00 which it did not bring. Don't know what has happened to it since or why it's not in the Eisenhower museum.

 

He was a 5-Star General, plus he gets 2 more stars for being President.

 

This is the hat given to President Kennedy in Fort Worth, TX the morning of the assassination, Nov 22, 1963. It was referred to as a Stetson hat but it is still referred to as The Texas Hat. Could this hat be a Peters Bros Shady Oaks or Bankers Special (post Swiss hoods) from when Peters Bros were sourcing Hat bodies & parts from Stetson? Pics are hard to come by but it's probably in the assassination museum in Dallas where they don't allow pics to be taken.

 

Another post-Swiss Hood era Peters Bros Shady Oak Bankers Special with a 3X embroidered LD liner "thrown in". No indication of felt quality level other than the liner. If the hoods were being sourced from Stetson then wouldn't Peters Bros have used their own liners they obviously had?

 

Thanks Ross. I guess I had forgotten you had a Peters Bros. I'm guessing no tags or stamping inside the sweat? Any idea of yr?

 

And would be in line with the established time line from 1948 of The Texas Hat as published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram November 16, 1952.

 

As recently as 2013 NBC News was referring to the assassination hat given to JFK in Fort Worth that morning as a Stetson. In an interview for an article about Peters Bros Custom Hats published in Texas Highways Magazine in Feb 2019, Brad Peters confirms it was a Shady Oak & its whereabouts today is unknown:

Quote:

In a corner of the shop, among various autographed photos, a black-and-white image shows President John F. Kennedy holding a Shady Oak as he stands at a lectern to address the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. The photo was taken on Nov. 22, 1963, hours before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.


“The story is that they tried to get him to put the hat on, and he said he would put it on when he got back to the White House,” Brad says. “Nobody knows where the hat is now.”

 

And this a video screen grab from NBC News.

 

The boots were pink but unknown if the type of skin was calf or exotic.

 

In a 2013 interview Jim Peters Jr. is quoted as saying that PBSO's have been gifted to nine US Presidents since 1923 & President Calvin Coolidge. One of the Presidents subsequently identified as receiving a Shady Oak is President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Taken in Amarillo, TX FDR is likely wearing that PBSO. Hatted at his side is his son Elliott Roosevelt. On the right, hat in hand is TX Congressman Fritz Lanham.



Congressman Lanham's hat may be straw.

 

I think you are right. He is standing behind Congressman Marvin Jones with his left arm on Jones' shoulder. I don't know who it would be.