Artifact Project By Danny

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Artifact ProjectBy Danny

• Beaver Hats

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Introduction

• Beaver hats were produced in a variety of
• ways from 1550 to 1850. Through the years
• beaver hats have changed their style so many
• different ways. It helped Canada with its
• popularity. This project is all about the beaver
• hat and what it had to do with the fur trades.

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Where It Was First Used?

• Beaver hats were made in England
• Time of Charles I, the King of England between
  1625 and 1642, the rage in Europe was beaver hats
  trimmed in Ostrich feathers.

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Different Beaver Hats

• Many different types of beaver hats where made.
• Beaver fur was the most popular pelt for making
  hats.
• The styles changed over the years.

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Evolution of the Beaver Hat

• 19th century the hats became more stiff and
  formal.
• Brims were narrower and often turned up in both
  the front and the back.
• They where called stovepipe hats, and they became
  the fashion for gentlemen.

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How Was It Made?

• Beaver hairs had little barbs on the end that
  when pressed would interlock and make a fabric.
• The process was called felting.
• Felt was taken and made into a hat.

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How Was It Made? (continued)

• Beaver hats didnt look furry.
• Beaver pelt has two kinds of hairs on it, short,
  thick, soft woolly layer and a long coarse layer.
• Coarse layer not used in the felting process.

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How the Beaver Hat Help The Fur Trade?

• Hudsons Bay Company had to explore and develop
  new lands to look for furs.
• Huge demand for hats in the 18th and early 19th
  century caused fur trade to rise.
• In a way Canada owes a lot of its exploration and
  development to beaver hats.

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Interesting Facts

• Believed that rubbing the oil into hair would
  develop a good memory.
• Also they said a person would regain their
  hearing if they where wearing a beaver hat.
• Traded knives, axes, guns, and blankets to Indian
  trappers for hundreds of thousands of beaver
  pelts.
• Beaver hats consider to be extremely valuable.
• Making beaver hats is a long step by step process.

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Short Answer Quiz

• Click here to do The Quiz
• Good Luck My Friends!

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Bibliography

• Notes
• www.hbc.com/hbc/e_hi/historic_hbc/pastlife.htm
• http//members.aol.com/Gibson0817/hbc.htm
• http//www.canadianheritage.org
• World Book 2002
• Images
• Slides 3-6
• www.hbc.com/hbc/e_hi/historic_hbc/pastlife.htm