In "My Father Daniel Boone" by Nathan Boone he stated that his father never wore, and didn't like Coonskin hats.
He has been said to wear a Quaker top hat of the mid 18th century. So what did the is Quaker top hat look like?
It is difficult to find solid evidence but here is some indications of what I think he might well have worn:
"He preferred a broad-brimmed hat–much like the ones his Quaker relatives wore–and which provided protection from the sun." Gene Ray, ggggg grandson of Daniel Boone
© 2008, State Historical Society of Missouri
"In the second half of the 18th century the crown became lower and the brim wider and turned up at the sides. This was termed in America the Quaker or Penn- sylvania hat, after William Penn, the English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania. It was also referred to as a Holland hat from its popularity with Dutch Quakers. By the 1680s this hat was made of grey or brown beaver or felt and was sometimes termed a 'wide-awake' hat."
The history of the Mennonite men's hat is somewhat similar. The eastern Pennsylvania men, including the Amish, generally adopted the "Quaker" broad-brimmed, flat-crowned (uncreased) hat
Stephen Hopkins was a signor of the Declaration of Independence who became a Quaker in his 40,'s, adopted the quaker tophat and never took it off to anyone, He is in two paintings of the signing and of the Congress in which he is shown wearing his hat. My Avatar is a painting of him wearing his Quaker tophat
So I asked Morgan Shea to make me a Quaker tophat. We looked at these pictures and other contemporaneous drawings of Quaker;s in the 18th century and came up with this design.
Daniel Boone By George Caleb Bingham (1852)
This is the Daniel Boone Monument at Appalachian state University
This a fur-felt (beaver??) hat by Morgan Shea..And yes I probably look more like the Quaker oats man than ol Dan'l...and neither of them wore facial hair...so just look at the hat!!
Your thoughts???
