Tracking the history of hat models

[billyspew]

I don't know if anyone has already used this/posted this but it is very useful in tracking the timeline of certain hat models.

Google News Archive Search has many newspapers worth of articles and ads indexed within it, and shows mentions over a timeline.
For instance a search of Stetson Whippet shows us that the first mention is Spetember 1940 and the last seems to be December 1960.

While not wholly comprehehnsive it does help to track prices as well, for instance in the 1940's it's $10 by September 1956 it is still $10, but by September 1958 it is $10.95.

Although a lot of the end-articles are pay per view or subscription only, it does give a nice overview, and I'm sure as they add content to the archive it can only get better.

Hope this is interesting for the other anoraks out there.

Bill

 

[jimmy the lid]

This is really a great bit of info, billyspew. Thanks for posting this.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[zetwal]

I learned a new word today too - ANORAK

 

[Lefty]

I've used Google, but it's somewhat limited. Newspaperarchive has much more, but requires a paid subscription. You might be able to access it for free through your local library as I do.

 

[jpbales]

a very neat tool

but I wish everything I clicked on didn't ask me to subscribe!