Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
A selected, source-based research collection for New Haven and Fairfield counties. Includes credited photographs where reusable images were located, historical interpretation and links to supporting records. It is a growing inventory, not an exhaustive survey. Photographs retain their individual dates and reuse terms; images do not establish present access conditions.

id: CT045-S01
title: Preservation Connecticut: American Hatters and Furriers
kind: Sources & research leads
date: Source reviewed September 2026
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Supporting source for the collection’s history, chronology and research notes. Factory postcards and preservation research connect finished hats to the businesses that supplied their materials.
url: https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/american-hatters-and-furriers-co
credit: Preservation Connecticut
notes: External source; the full publication remains with its publisher. The archive provides an original educational summary and a link. See the collection history for the claims supported by this record.
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accessed: 2026-09-12
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id: CT045-P01
title: National Hat Factory, Danbury: 1912 postcard
kind: Photographs
date: 1912
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: National Hat Factory, Danbury; photographic postcard mailed in 1912.
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PostcardDanburyCTNatlHatFactry1912.jpg
credit: Unknown photographer / Public domain
notes: Public domain in the United States (source file license). Image supplied at web resolution; no editorial changes to the source image.
file: images/danbury-2573586.jpg
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accessed: 2026-09-12
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external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/PostcardDanburyCTNatlHatFactry1912.jpg
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id: CT045-P02
title: Danbury hat factory: 1911 postcard
kind: Photographs
date: 1911
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Danbury hat factory; photographic postcard postmarked 1911.
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PostcardDanburyCTViewOfTheHatFactory1911.jpg
credit: Unknown photographer / Public domain
notes: Public domain in the United States (source file license). Image supplied at web resolution; no editorial changes to the source image.
file: images/danbury-11265520.jpg
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: 
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/PostcardDanburyCTViewOfTheHatFactory1911.jpg
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id: ED-IG-DAN-01
title: Hatters pressing straw hat bodies
kind: Photographs
date: undated historic photograph; reproduced 2011-01-26
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Workers press straw hat bodies in a Danbury factory, showing a branch of production different from fur-felt hatmaking.
url: https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/coming-sunday-the-last-of-the-hatters-979152.php
credit:  / Danbury Museum & Historical Society, reproduced by News-Times
notes: Available at the linked repository; image or full record is not included in this download. Do not use 2011 as the date of the historic photograph. Reuse: link-only; photo copyright not established; Source credits contributed museum photo; no open license found.
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accessed: 2026-09-12
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external_image_url: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/02/05/03/544962/5/rawImage.jpg
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id: ED-IG-DAN-02
title: Aerial view of the Mallory Hat Factory area
kind: Photographs
date: circa 1940
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: An aerial view places the Mallory Hat Factory among Danbury's closely spaced industrial buildings.
url: https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Danbury-s-drive-to-bring-life-back-to-a-9220546.php
credit:  / News-Times; contributed photograph
notes: Available at the linked repository; image or full record is not included in this download. Source identifies Mallory in center-right; left building later occupied by Fairfield Processing. Article updated 2016-09-14. Reuse: link-only; photo copyright not established; Source supplies circa 1940 date but no photographer or open license.
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accessed: 2026-09-12
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external_image_url: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/51/53/31/10925676/4/1920x0.jpg
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id: ED-IG-DAN-03
title: The Blowing Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Long rows of blowing machinery prepared and mixed fur before it was formed into hat bodies.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-03.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=41
document_file: 

id: ED-IG-DAN-04
title: The Forming Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Workers stand beside forming machinery, where prepared fur began to take the conical shape of a hat body.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-04.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=53
document_file: 

id: ED-IG-DAN-05
title: Stiff Hat Sizing Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Workers and equipment fill the department devoted to shrinking and felting stiff-hat bodies.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-05.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=65
document_file: 

id: ED-IG-DAN-06
title: Soft Hat Sizing Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: A separate sizing room handled soft hats; the photograph shows workers close to the wet processing equipment.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-06.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=71
document_file: 

id: ED-IG-DAN-07
title: Soft Hat Finishing Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Rows of hat racks and workstations show the scale of finishing operations at the Lee-McLachlan factory.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-07.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=95
document_file: 

id: ED-IG-DAN-08
title: Soft Hat Trimming Room
kind: Photographs
date: Published 1910–1911; copyright 1911. Individual camera date not stated.
institution: Danbury’s Hat & Fur Industry
summary: Workers sit and stand along benches in the trimming room, where finishing components were added to hats.
url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentur00mill
credit: Photographer not identified; David C. Mills, author; Lee-McLachlan Company, publisher / Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive; Wikimedia Commons PDF mirror
notes: Company publication. Do not present management claims about sanitation, efficiency or workers' welfare as independent findings. The digitized copy contains a later inserted Frank H. Lee Co. ownership notice; exact date of that notice is not established. Rendered complete PDF page at 150dpi using Poppler; rotated 90 degrees clockwise for reading; original printed caption retained. No image synthesis or retouching. Visually reviewed complete plate in source page render; manufacturing photograph, not a drawn factory plan. Display copy optimized for the web with proportional resizing and compression. The linked repository identifies the original image. Reuse: public domain; Commons file record identifies copyright status as public domain; title page states 1910–1911, copyright page 1911.
file: images/ED-IG-DAN-08.webp
text_file: 
accessed: 2026-09-12
license_url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_(IA_twentiethcentur00mill).pdf
external_image_url: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_twentieth_century_hat_factory_%28IA_twentiethcentur00mill%29.pdf#page=115
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