Re: LUCIUS BEEBE: December 9, 1902 – February 4, 1966

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"In Virginia City, a derby elicits no remark at all, possibly because Nevadans don't know it has gone out of fashion, but more probably because they recognize in the derby the true and authentic Hat of the Old West.

This is a demonstrable verity and deserves the attention of students of Western mores -- if only to erase the delusion that the only headgear for men in the classic West was the Stetson sombrero, a hat that in actual fact never existed outside of Texas and Kansas during the cattle drives but which was widely if spuriously exploited by the painter Remington around the turn of the century.

The most casual reference to the iconographic record will reveal that everywhere west of the Mississippi in frontier times, when firearms were universal and before stages were preempted by the steam cars, the derby hat was universal in almost every walk of Western life save two: banking and driving a stagecoach. The man of money wore a silk tile; the knight of the ribbons was identifiable by a finely textured, usually white, low-crowned felt hat known regionally as a Mormon."