Family and Local History Indexing Group

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	This article first appeared in SIGGNL 23 pages 12 to 14 (February/March 2000)

	Mad as a Hatter Gerry Allen
	Luton Museum, which focuses on the hat industry as part of the local industrial history of the town, holds a run of The Hatters' Gazette & Umbrella and Portmanteau Trades Review from 1878 until it ceased publication in the 1950's. In the past, some attempt has been made to index selected items of local interest but there is no comprehensive index to this publication which served its trades across the UK.
	When I retired last year, having had some connection with both the British Hat Guild & the Bedfordshire Family History Society, I thought that this would make a "nice little project". This is not my first attempt at indexing a serial publication but is the first task of this magnitude that I have tackled and, although it is proving to be most interesting, both from a subject and indexing standpoint, my rate of progress has been far slower than I anticipated: using MACREX software and putting in about 5 hours a week, I estimate that I shall complete only 6 of the 70-odd annual volumes during this year - so much for the "nice little project"!
	The journal comprises editorial, news, correspondence, anecdote, trade data and a considerable quantity of advertising relevant to the main trades covered - hats (ladies & gents), umbrellas, luggage - and also some subsidiary trades - gloves, clothing & textiles. Much attention is paid to the sourcing, production and pricing of raw materials (including furs, leather, rubber, silk & felt), to patents and the use of machinery and to matters of fashion; the journal is also concerned with overseas trade, both import and export, the state of these same industries worldwide and business and the economy generally. The text can be dense and not a little verbose. Copies of the original journal are not widely available, and the intention is to distribute copies of the finished index to potential users elsewhere who might still find it useful even in the immediate absence of the corresponding journal; the index therefore needed to be as informative as possible without any undue increase in bulk.
Company names	Given the emphasis on companies and their products, it was decided to establish a convention for entry which conveyed the maximum amount of information without compelling the user to refer back to the original publication. Hence, a master entry was made for each company, e.g.: Jones, H. & Co., * felt hat manufacturers (21 Bridge St, Luton & 23 Piccadilly, London) (established 1843) The asterisk is a simple device to bring the master entry to the top of the list of other entries under the same company name.
Page references	Page references for casual mentions can be added to this master entry but major mentions demanding more detail can be created as separate entries, e.g.: Jones, H. & Co., lighting by electricity, 1878.23 Many companies advertise repeatedly, often using the same format over several months or even years before changing the nature of the advertisement. To avoid superfluous entries, a convention was adopted as follows: Jones, H. & Co., advertisement series 1 from 1878.23 to 1879.654 series 2 (umbrella stands) from 1880.123 to 1881.75 Mentions of named individuals generally appear alongside the companies with which they were involved but cross references were required to deal with partnerships. e.g. Vero & Everitt. A cross reference entry is made for each type of company, gathered geographically, e.g.: felt hats, manufacturers (Manchester district) see Austin, R.W.; Cheetham, John; Lowe & Co. felt hats, manufacturers (Luton district) see Jones, H. & Co.; Whittaker & Farrow Trade marks and model names are where possible linked to the originating company.
Jargon	As in any publication of this type, jargon and esoteric or contemporary trade terms are used without explanation and synonyms abound. Where possible, cross references are used to deal with such matters, e.g. abatements see prices, retail reductions bumpers see milling stocks hurers see hatters mungo see wool waste schappe see silk waste tow see hemp but some terms are unique, e.g. ‘thrummed’ (trimmed with a fringe of unwoven threads) and I have yet to pin down exactly what ‘snoddling’ is; I am learning as I go.
Impact of technology	The impact of technology is clearly seen with machines, including the sewing machine, replacing manual skills, the arrival of the electric lighting, synthetic dyes and new materials. Alongside this, we see changes in bankruptcy law, trademark registration , trade unions, free trade and tariffs.
Wide scope of entries	Alongside this, the Gazette gives an insight into contemporary opinion , social attitudes and matters of business etiquette. It is also a great source of irresistably odd material, interesting historical trivia and folklore, only some of which has been indexed; some ideas taken seriously at the time which would probably be dismissed as nonsense now or items of apparently passing interest still probably deserve a place in the index. Hence you will find entries: Disraeli, Benjamin, life history dog hair, used in cap manufacture felt, discovered by St Clement, patron saint of hatters glass, blue, used in crowns of hats, as cure for baldness gorilla, with penchant for hats & umbrellas hats, as an aid to Sunday drinking hats, novelty, with flower barometer hats, for smokers, with internal pipe holder headdress, Boer, for courting memory loss, as a result of hat wearing, causing overheating of the head I expect this to continue to be an interesting journey as I move forward through time although it is likely to be some years before I get into the last century!


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