Baltimore Hats, Past and Present

by William Tufts Brigham

The congress met June 22, 1774, offering their heartiest support not only in resolution, but in the more substantial way of money and food, as aid to their Boston friends in the resistance to British tyranny and oppression, supplementing these patriotic resolutions by one making the importation of English goods an act disloyal to the sentiment of American hearts.

The earliest manufacturing hatter in Baltimore, of whom any definite knowledge can be obtained, was David Shields, who kept store at No. 14 Gay street. As the location was on the east side of Gay and the seventh house from the corner of Baltimore street, it probably was about half-way between Baltimore and Fayette streets. Here he sold to his patrons the products of his "back shop" or factory, which was located on the south side of East, now Fayette street, at a point half-way between Gay and Frederick streets. Mr. Shields' father was from Pennsylvania. David Shields was born in the year 1737, and his descendants of to-day include some of the wealthiest and most refined citizens of Baltimore. In Scharf's "Chronicles of Baltimore" his name is mentioned, in connection with others, in the year 1769 as aiding by a general subscription in procuring an engine for the extinguishment of fires; this engine was for the "Mechanical Fire Company," and was the first machine of its kind in Baltimore, costing the sum of two hundred and sixty-four dollars.

Unfortunately, the information gained of Mr. Shields' business career is so meagre as to leave much to the imagination, but it is natural to suppose that in 1769, being thirty-two years of age, he must have been established in business.

That Mr. Shields was a public-spirited citizen is further proven by his connection with the First Baptist Society, being one of a committee constituted for the purpose of purchasing a lot upon which to erect a church; this was in 1773, two years before the Revolution. The church was built on Front street, upon the site now occupied by the Merchants' Shot Tower, and was the first Baptist Church erected in Baltimore.

The Federal Gazette announces the death of Mr. Shields, October 4, 1811, in the seventy-fourth year of his age; his funeral taking place from his residence, which was over his place of business, on Gay street.

What may have been the actual condition of the hat business of Baltimore just before the Revolution has been difficult to ascertain. Mr. Shields must have been in business during this period, and it is more than probable that in a town of the size of Baltimore at that date there must have been others engaged in this branch of business, but how many and who they were cannot be ascertained. It is very likely that the restriction placed by English rule upon most manufacturing industries prior to the Revolution operated detrimentally upon this industry also, and while the ordinary kind of wool felt hats were made by the hatter in his own shop, undoubtedly most of the fashionable hats sold and worn at that time were of English or French make. Paris (which then, as well as now, was the axis upon which revolved the world of fashion) possibly supplied the wants of Baltimore's highborn gentry, always famous for exquisite dress and refined taste, with the French chapeau—the ton of those days.

As there are no existing detailed statistics of the business of Baltimore during the Revolutionary War, the record of some business firms has been entirely lost, and although some trades have received slight mention in the published histories of the city, a trace of the existence of but two hatters, who afterwards continued in business, is to be found. Since it is known as a fact that fourteen hatters were engaged in business in Baltimore, not later than ten years after the close of the war, we have a right to suppose that more than two must have been in business during the existence of the war.

Among the proceedings of the "Council of Safety" of Maryland, organized at the outbreak of the war, is found the following order: "March 2, 1776. The Council of Safety authorize Major Gist to contract for fifty camp-kettles and as many hats as may be necessary for the battalion, not to exceed 7 shillings apiece." Again, April 6, 1776, "Commissary of Stores of Baltimore is ordered to send to Annapolis 200 of the hats arrived from Philadelphia." Why Baltimore hatters did not supply the needed hats for Maryland militia we cannot say, but probably a sharp competition for so large a contract wrested it from them.

The adoption of the "cocked" hat in its various forms as a portion of the military costume of the Continental Army brought about the necessity of making a distinction between civil and military wear.

After the close of the American Revolution France was in a state of civil insurrection, and the French "chapeau" of that time was constructed upon a plan somewhat similar to that of the "cocked" hat. With the termination of the French Revolution appeared the "steeple-top" hat, having a conical crown with stiff curled brim, drooping front and rear, being trimmed with a very wide band and ornamented in front with a huge metal buckle, a change radical enough from those preceding it, but admitting a question as to its comparative intrinsic beauty or to its being a more becoming part of male attire; the style withal certainly proved acceptable, for with slight modifications it has continued and is now embodied in the fashionable silk hat of the present time.