Why Do We Wear Hats to the Kentucky Derby?

Did you ever wonder why we wear elaborate hats to the Kentucky Derby? Well, the history of the Kentucky Derby goes back to the Derby Stakes in Britain, known here in the States as the Epsom Derby. The Epsom Derby was first run in 1780 and is the highest-purse horse race in Britain. 

In 1873, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. visited Europe, taking in the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp. He returned home to Louisville and organized the race now known as the Kentucky Derby, looking toward these races for inspiration for track design, race length and other details. When the Kentucky Derby began in 1875, Kentucky ladies wore their finest to the races, just as their British counterparts did. Of course, in those days, finery included a chapeau, and the tradition stuck.

Kentucky Derby 1938. via The Huffington Post.

These days, a Derby Hat is the first thing most ladies look for when they make place for the big race. Kate Welsh, co-owner of The Hat Girls, the Official Hat Designers of the Kentucky Derby Festival, says "Sixty percent of our business is custom work, which wasn’t in our original business plan. We find that, typically, a lady wants to pick out her clothes around the hat. Others want a custom design made from dresses they’ve already picked out."

Of course, there's a fine line between a dramatic hat and one that's too comfortable for race day wear. Kate Welsh says "We’re very honest with customers about what works for them. People try the hats on, and they don’t always realize that an adjustable hat brim only helps them so much. As designers, we try to limit how many feathers or sequins we add to the hat so thatit’s not sagging down into the customer’s face."

Rachel Bell, Ms. Welsh's Hat Girls partner, notes that their designs do strike a balance between practicality and flair. "But, at the same time, the hat usually is the focal point of the outfit." 

Kate Walsh of The Hat Girls shows a hat that was custom-made to match a client's Derby Dress.

Whether your preferred look is a practical fascinator or a show-stopping chapeau, you can thank the Derby's English roots -- and especially Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr's trip to Epsom -- for the tradition of Kentucky Derby Hats.

Want to learn more about the Kentucky Derby's history? Download The Kentucky Derby by Bill Doolittle, now in eBook format, on Amazon or iBooks. 

Elizabeth Blackwell, Frances Jane Coomes, and the History of Women Physicians in Kentucky

Today is National Women Physicians Day, in observance of the 196th anniversary of Elizabeth Blackwell's birth.  The British-born Dr. Blackwell is remembered as the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States as well as the first woman on the United Kingdom Medical Register. What you may not know is that, prior to undertaking her medical training, Dr. Blackwell briefly worked as a schoolteacher in Kentucky!

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in a large, nurturing family in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England in 1821; her father, Samuel, was a sugar refiner. Following civil unrest in Bristol, Samuel moved the family first to New York City and later to Cincinnati. As the family fell on hard financial times, Elizabeth accepted a teaching position in Henderson, Kentucky, at a salary of $400/year. Ultimately, Elizabeth's time in the Bluegrass State was unsatisfactory. She found herself suited neither for the town nor the profession, and returned to Cincinnati after a few months, resolving to find a more fulfilling line of work. She worked as a music teacher in North Carolina, saving money for her goal of pursuing a medical education, ultimately enrolling at Geneva Medical College in upstate New York. The degree of medical doctor was conferred upon Dr. Blackwell in January 1849.

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Fort Harrod

While Dr. Blackwell is widely known as the first woman to attain a formal medical degree in the United States, the first woman who was recognized as a physician in Kentucky actually predates the Commonwealth's statehood. Frances Jane Coomes and her husband William accompanied Dr. George Hartt to Fort Harrod in the 1770s. Mrs. Coomes served an apprenticeship under Dr. Hartt, and also is known as Kentucky's first schoolteacher. According to Dr. John A Ouchterlony, in his 1880 book Pioneer Medical Men and Times in Kentucky,

The husband was brave and intrepid; took part in many fights with the Indians, and had numerous adventures and hair breadth escapes. He reached a high age, and was much respected and honored; but it is especially his wife who claims attention in connection with pioneer Medicine in Kentucky. She was a woman of remarkably vigorous intellect, great originality and fertility of resource, and of strong and noble character. She certainly was the first female who ever practiced Medicine in Kentucky and according to some she was the first of her sex to exercise the beneficent functions of the healing arts of our State. She was physician, surgeon, and obstetrician, and her fame and practice extended far and wide, even attracting patients from remote settlements and not only in Kentucky, but in adjoining States.

Here's to Mrs. Coomes, Dr. Blackwell, and all of the other great female physicians for whom Kentucky was part of the story!

The Nineteenth Amendment's Kentucky Roots

In the 1920s, many Kentuckians were living rather rural and agrarian lives. The Commonwealth was the nation's top producer of tobacco, while Eastern Kentucky coal camp towns were transforming the Appalachian economy in response to a growing demand for coal-fired energy. The Bluegrass State's biggest cities were headed in exciting new directions: empowered by electric streetcars, Lexington expanded to include the Ashland and Bell Court suburbs, while Louisville would soon establish itself as a Prohibition-era playground for flappers, bootleggers, and even a gangster or two. 

But did you know that 1920s Kentucky was important to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote?

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Kentucky's Voting Rights Champion, Laura Clay

The issue of women's suffrage has an interesting history in Kentucky. As early as the 1830s, some Kentucky women were allowed to vote in school board elections.  The Women's Suffrage movement in Kentucky was championed by Laura Clay and her sister Mary Barr Clay, the daughters of famed abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay. The Clay sisters became fervent women's right advocates when their parents' divorce left their mother homeless and without agency. Laura's work was so tireless and far-reaching that she even became the first woman to be nominated for President by a major political party. Her work as founder of the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association focused not only on the right to vote, but also on women's rights to property ownership and financial agency.

Soon, women's rights leaders like Laura Clay found their hard work being rewarded as national support of suffrage movements took hold.

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"KY Governor Edwin P. Morrow signing the Anthony Amendment,” 1920. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-USZ62-78691.

On the first day of the 1920 Kentucky General Assembly, Kentucky ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by a margin of 72 to 25 in the House and 30 to 8 in the Senate. Less than a  month after taking office, on January 6, 1920, Governor Edwin P. Morrow, a Somerset-born Republican and former U.S. Attorney, signed the Bill into law. Kentucky was one of only four Southern states to approve the amendment, which went into effect after Tennessee followed suit in August of that year. The 19th Amendment was incorporated into the Constitution on August 26, 1920.

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Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, a Louisville native

As with all revolutionary legislation, the 19th Amendment was met with immediate litigation. In Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the amendment's validity. The legal opinion, written by Louisville native Louis D. Brandeis, found that the amendment was properly ratified by the states and was, therefore, legally adopted.

Today we celebrate the ninety-sixth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and thank forward-thinking Kentuckians like Laura Clay, Mary Barr Clay, Edwin P. Morrow, and Louis Brandeis for helping ensure the voting rights of Kentucky women. Thanks to these and other brave Kentuckians who have ensured freedoms and equal rights for Kentucky's women!

The Kentucky Derby by Bill Doolittle

There are a whole lot of great things about springtime in Kentucky. There's basketball and beautiful weather and spring festivals, but absolutely nothing else compares to Derby! The Kentucky Derby puts Louisville in the international spotlight every year on the First Saturday of May. For Kentuckians, Derby is everything -- it's pageantry, it's history, and it's a whole lot of fun. And, as we all know, it's Decadent and Depraved!

I just got my copy of The Kentucky Derby -- Derby Fever, Derby Day, and the Run for the Roses, a fabulous new coffee table book by Bill Doolittle, and I couldn't be more excited about Derby, even though it's still 67 Days away! Mr Doolittle is a longtime track writer and Derby Historian, and his book delves into the history of the race itself. I love the book's message that the Derby didn't grow into something big; it's always been planned as the premier event for American racing, patterned on the huge horse races of England. 

Of course, no book about Derby can leave out the traditions that surround the race -- the mint juleps, the roses, and the festivities. It's all there: Mr. Doolittle covers the blanket of roses, the bourbon cocktail we traditionally only drink on Derby Day, and the participants from the Infield to Millionaire's Row.

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The coolest thing about Mr. Doolittle's book is that the experience isn't just limited to the pages of text. You can download the Digimarc app on your smartphone, scroll over photos that feature the Digimarc logo, and instantly pull up associated video and blogs! I love this interactive feature that takes you straight to the track to experience races and interviews.

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The Kentucky Derby Book is available for purchase online and in Louisville at Dolfinger's and Carmichael's. It's the perfect way to get ready for Derby season, and would make a fantastic gift for the Derby fan in your life!

{Disclosure: The Kentucky Derby Book has an advertising relationship with HerKentucky.com, and I was provided a copy of the book for review. All opinions are my own. I truly do love this book, y'all.}