Tuesday, September 7
Noon at the Museum
Speaker: Dr. Jim Conrad & Cheryl Westhafer Commerce Through the Lens of a Camera
Dr. Jim Conrad, long-time Museum Board member and retired
archivist at A&M University Commerce, and Cheryl Westhafer, collections
librarian at the Commerce Public Library, have teamed up to compile
a book that gives a visual history of Commerce from its founding in
1885 to the present.
Aided by a power point presentation that will show historic
photos of Commerce from the book, the speakers will discuss the compilation
of the book, the challenges in putting it together, and the methods
they used to select photos.
Taken from the A&M Special Collections archives
and the Commerce Public Library, the more than 200 photos in this 128
page pictorial history depeict Commerce, the University, the once all
black Norris Community.
If you would like to order a sandwich from Glenda's,
please call the Museum at (903) 450-4502 before 10 a.m. on September
7.
Sponsors for May’s LBS are Gerri Titus and Dave
Walvoord.
Movie Night
Saturday, August 21
6 p.m. The Old Corral starring Gene Autry
Free popcorn & drinks
A typical Gene Autry everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
musical Western, The Old Corral, released in 1936, featured
the spectacle of uutry getting robbed at gunpoint by his future competitor
at Republic, Roy Rogers. Regers - then known as Dick Weston - and his
fellow highwaymen (The Sons of the Pioneers) go about their illegal
activities like true gentlemen, refusing to rob female passengers Nora
Cecil and Hope Manning. The plot gets more complicated, of course.
We'll also show the next installment of "Tailspin
Timmy" at 5:30.
Donations are gratefully accepted (and will go toward
a new popcorn machine - ours is on loan and will be returned in a few
months.)
Mark your calenders for these events and watch this space
for more information!
Heritage Dinner
Saturday, August 28
7 p.m. (reception 6:30)
Our 5th Annual Heritage Dinner will feature guest speaker
Mark Wright. Wright, a 23-year veteran of the UsS. Navy, is a Hunt Regional
Medical Center Emergency Department nurse from Wolfe City and the recipient
of the "Exceptional Nurse Service Excellence Award" from the
10th Annual Summit Awards held in Nashville, Tennessee.
In addition to being an exceptional RN, Mark is a cowboy,
a poet, a singer, and a soldier who will make you feel good about America!
Tickets for the dinner (catered by Cup and Saucer) are
$50 per seat or $350 for a table of 8. We will also have a silent auction.
Please reserve your seat by Wednesday, August 25, by calling the Museum
at (903) 450-4502.
this promises to be a fun evening and, being our major
fundraiser for the year, is part of what enables us to keep our doors
open.
Current Exhibits
Chapeaux Extraordinaire!
We
just can’t keep this under our hat any longer - for the next couple
of months we will feature chapeaux (that’s “hats”
in French for you non-French speakers!) throughout the decades.
Most of the hats on display belong to the Museum and
are from the Eugenia Mehmert collection.We are pleased to have several
from Melva Hill - we think these collections are a real feather in our
cap!
Although women from an early stage were always expected
to have their heads covered by veils, kerchiefs, hoods, caps and wimples,
it was not until the end of the 16th century that women's structured
hats, based on those of male courtiers began to be seen. It was in the
late seventeenth century that women's headgear began to emerge in its
own right and not be influenced by men's hat fashions.
The word 'milliner', a maker of women's hats, was first
recorded in the 1500s when fine straw hats were made in the Duchy of
Milan. The haberdashers who imported these highly popular straws were
called 'Millaners' from which the word was eventually derived.
During the first half of the nineteenth century the
bonnet dominated women's fashion, becoming very large with many ribbons,
flowers, feathers and gauze trims giving an appearance of even greater
size.
One
of the most debated accessories used in women’s fashions was the
use of birds and bird feathers as fashion ornaments. This vast destruction
of bird life helped to bring about the National Audubon Society in 1905
which created legislation to prevent the slaughter of native birds in
the United States.
Men’s hat fashion was not limited to the beaver
hat. Coonskin caps, bowlers, der-bies, fedoras, and straw boaters all
played their part as fashion necessities throughout the years. But,
for sheer elegance, nothing topped (pun intended!) the silk top hat
which dominated the 19th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, both men and women
changed their hats depending on their activity; for many ladies of some
social standing, it would be several times a day, and it was considered
a disgraceful act to venture out of the house without a hat or even
gloves. One record tells of a young lady venturing out to post a letter
without her hat and gloves and being severely reprimanded for not being
appropriately dressed. (The post box was situated a few yards from her
front garden gate!) In the Edwardian Age, only the beggars went bareheaded.
As the years have passed, hats have slowly lost favor.
Still a societal “must,” many women wore hats well into
the 1940s and ‘50s, but by the 1960s, the middle class had pretty
much stopped wearing them except for special events and church. This
change is credited to JFK who was the first president to appear in public,
and on television, without a hat.
Women kept their hats a bit longer because Jackie Kennedy
was never seen out without a stunning hat. Hats enjoyed a brief resurgence
of popularity in the 1980s for weddings and special occasions due to
the influence of public figures such as Diana, the late Princess of
Wales’s enthusiasm for wearing them. Today, few women wear hats
on a regular basis, except for special occasions.
Today, two of the most popular styles of hats are American
icons: the cowboy hat, invented in the mid 1860s by John Stetson, and
the baseball cap, invented in the early 1850s. Both were created by
Americans and both were designed for their functions, rather than fashion.
The Audie Murphy/American
Cotton Museum
600 Interstate 30 East Location Map
P.O. Box 347
Greenville, Texas 75403
903-450-4502
Fax: 903-454-1990
Open Tues. - Sat. 10:00-5:00
Adults: $6
Seniors (60+), Military veterans, and College students $4.00
Children 18 and under $2.00
We
just can’t keep this under our hat any longer - for the next couple
of months we will feature chapeaux (that’s “hats”
in French for you non-French speakers!) throughout the decades. 
One
of the most debated accessories used in women’s fashions was the
use of birds and bird feathers as fashion ornaments. This vast destruction
of bird life helped to bring about the National Audubon Society in 1905
which created legislation to prevent the slaughter of native birds in
the United States.