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Boss of the Plains?

Stout is as Stout does........and well drinks.
I like Stout "It makes me a jolly good fellow".:D
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Off to have a stout and whiskey...........it's calling me now.
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TWKundrat

One of the Regulars
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106
aFKPe97HUiEmh_pYTKhNQ2tNMlBsTT4PbvdpW26pnuc.jpg

I've seen this a handful of times claiming to be one of the earliest Stetson ads. One site claims it's from the 1875 Montgomery Wards catalog but I've looked through a scan of that catalog online and this isn't in it. It was the spring/summer catalog I looked through so maybe there was another one? Does anyone know the true origins of this advertisement?

Was Stetson using nutria fur this early on? I know I've read that nutria was introduced to North America right around the turn of the century but maybe the fur was imported from South America at that time.
 

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jlee562

I'll Lock Up
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5,108
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I've also thought that Montgomery Ward claim was dubious. I didn't search exhaustively, but that site that has a scan of the 1901 catalog also has this "Stetson's Monthly" dated 1899. A few pages after the quote below, there is a picture captioned "WASHING NUTRIA SKINS."

https://digital.hagley.org/Stetson_...av[page]=0&solr_nav[offset]=0#page/4/mode/2up

Nutria is valued far higher than any other hatter's furs. Superior strength and rich texture make its high cost. Our position among the world's makers of fine hats may be easily estimated by the fact that we use more Nutria fur than all the other hat-makers in the world combined. The balance of all materials used in Stetson hats is the expert selection of the world's markets, quality being the first consideration.

I think it's probably a fair presumption that they didn't become the "world's leader" in use of Nutria overnight and that they had been doing so for some time.
 

TWKundrat

One of the Regulars
Messages
106
I've also thought that Montgomery Ward claim was dubious. I didn't search exhaustively, but that site that has a scan of the 1901 catalog also has this "Stetson's Monthly" dated 1899. A few pages after the quote below, there is a picture captioned "WASHING NUTRIA SKINS."

https://digital.hagley.org/Stetson_1899_Catalogue?solr_nav[id]=6ed618f80d9c5c0db79e&solr_nav[page]=0&solr_nav[offset]=0#page/4/mode/2up



I think it's probably a fair presumption that they didn't become the "world's leader" in use of Nutria overnight and that they had been doing so for some time.
I hadn't seen that "Stetson's Monthly" before. That's good stuff. Thanks for posting it.
 

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