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Many people associate cowboy hats with western stars like John Wayne (on the left). In recent years, Beyoncé has fronted the so-called Yeehaw agenda, where art and fashion show that cowboys have always been a part of African American culture.

The Wild West, Stetson, and Beyoncé:
The cowboy hat is a piece of American history

It is the foremost symbol of the American West. But the cowboy hat also tells a much more complex story about the USA.

Freelance JOURNALIST
Presented by: University of Oslo
Published

It is not an everyday sight to encounter a cowboy hat on the streets of Oslo, let alone in the intellectual hub of the University of Oslo. 

If you do spot one, however, don't be surprised if it's perched on the head of Stefan Rabitsch, an associate professor in American studies.

“I’m not myself without the hat. It has become a part of my identity,” says Rabitsch.

He understands that people might wonder why a man from Austria would wear one of the most iconic symbols of the Wild West.

Stefan Rabitsch researches and teaches about American culture and history at the University of Oslo.

“I got my very first hat in Australia when I was there as a teenager. Even though Australia doesn’t have cowboys, the principle is the same. A wide-brimmed hat provides great protection from the sun, which can be very harsh in Australia,” says Rabitsch.

He also owns an American Stetson, the most famous brand, which he uses for formal occasions.

“I’ve gotten used to people pointing at me and wanting to talk about my hat. Wherever I go in the world, nine out of ten people will call me a cowboy. Even though it’s technically an Australian bush hat, not a cowboy hat,” says Rabitsch.

The origins of the cowboy hat

While most of us associate this headgear with a place – the American West – and a time – often the late 1800s – the history of the cowboy hat can be told in several ways.

“A popular version is linked to the brand name Stetson. More specifically, to John B. Stetson, who is said to have made such a hat while searching for gold in Colorado after the American Civil War,” Rabitsch explains.

Stetson had learned the craft from his father, a hat maker, and later opened his first hat shop in New Jersey. Since then, the name has become almost synonymous with wide-brimmed felt hats.

“Stetson is an important story, but it’s just one chapter in the history of the cowboy hat. People were wearing hats long before Stetson,” says Rabitsch.

He has traced similar headgear back to long before Europeans arrived in America, for example linked to cattle ranching in southern Spain. This applies not only to the hat but also to what we think of as being a cowboy.

“It was primarily the Spanish who imported the knowledge of cattle ranching on horseback to America. With this knowledge came equipment and attire, including hats with wide brims and a raised crown,” says Rabitsch.

The Mexican sombrero shares the same origin. Regardless of the shape, the most important facot was providing the best protection while working long days in the scorching sun.

Exactly where ‘the West’ begins depends on who you ask. If you ask Stefan Rabitsch, a common dividing line is between the 98th and 100th degrees of longitude, where it goes from green to brown on this map.

The West

He also points out that the West stretches into northern Mexico and southern Canada. Perhaps it’s not so much about geography. The West has always been, and still is, an abstract concept.

“Both among historians and in popular myths, the story has long been about the expansion westward, about the conquest of the West, about a frontier where civilisation meets the wilderness,” says Rabitsch.

“But, of course, this is a problematic story because it leaves out all the darker sides, and it's no longer how we understand the West,” he adds.

Since around the 1980s, this has changed, at least in academic circles. The American West is now more about the legacy of imperial conquest, where the American government and private interests played a dominant role.

“We also have to acknowledge the original inhabitants, both indigenous people who had been there for thousands of years and the descendants of the Spaniards who had influence there for 250 years before the Americans arrived,” says Rabitsch.

He explains that the American West, like the rest of the USA, is a complex and multicultural area. 

“It’s a history with many, sometimes conflicting, voices,” he says. 

Beyoncé and Yellowstone have given cowboy hats new life

The cowboy hat had its heyday from the Civil War in the 1860s until a little into the 20th century. At that time, it was a big industry. 

Other hat styles took over, but by the 1960s, they too declined. Today, there are very few hatmakers left in the USA. Rabitsch has visited some of them and can report about machines that are over 100 years old and still in use.

“It was like stepping back in time. I saw felt machines that were bought in the 1890s and are still being used. They keep them running with creative solutions as spare parts are no longer being made,” he says.

The Western culture, including the cowboy hat, had a brief revival after the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta. The TV series Yellowstone has recently brought the West and the cowboy hat back into the limelight. 

But perhaps even more interesting is the so-called Yeehaw Agenda, which has been fronted by singer Beyoncé, among others.

“The Yeehaw Agenda started several years ago but became truly mainstream with Beyoncé. Western wear, not just hats, is used in African-American culture, in art, music, and fashion,” says Rabitsch.

“For African Americans, it was primarily a way to highlight and reclaim their place in this history, a history they had previously been written out of,” he says. 

He believes this movement is important and points out that at least a third of those working as cowboys in cattle ranching in the 1800s were people of colour.

Work hats and fancy hats

The West was much more than John Wayne, the good versus the bad, stereotypes from old Western movies, and the cavalry coming to sort things out in the end.

“The West wasn’t a boundary. It wasn’t a uniform westward movement. It was an intricate, multicultural, and messy place. And that still applies today,” says Rabitsch.

As a researcher, it’s not easy to keep track of the different versions of the history of the West. Rabitsch calls it mental gymnastics.

“We try to navigate through the different layers of the geographical West, the historical West, today’s West, and of course, the imaginary West,” he says.

Amidst all of this, the classic cowboy still exists.

“There are a lot of them. I’ve met many hard-working cowboys,” he says.

They often have several hats: a work hat, worn and full of blood, cow dung, and dirt; a hat they wear to the store, at a restaurant with family, perhaps even at church on Sundays; and an exclusive, more expensive hat that they only wear at weddings and funerals.

“There’s no better protection from the sun,” concludes Rabitsch.

Reference:

Rabitsch, S. One Nation Under Many Cowboy Hats: Western Hats and American Studies - A Cultural-Historical Conspectus, Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies (JAAS), 2024. DOI: 10.47060/jaaas.v4i1.105

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