author
hatter John Thomson
A practical 19th-century hat maker, he wrote a detailed guide to the craft of felting and hat-making at a time when those skills were part of everyday industry. His surviving work offers a rare, hands-on look at the materials, methods, and trade knowledge behind making hats.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed from readily available reliable sources. Library and public-domain book records identify him simply as John Thomson, hatter, and his best-known surviving work is A Treatise on Hat-Making and Felting: Including a Full Exposition of the Singular Properties of Fur, Wool, and Hair, published in Philadelphia in 1868.
The book presents him as "a practical hatter," which suggests he was writing from direct trade experience rather than from a purely academic perspective. The treatise focuses on fur, wool, hair, and the processes used in hat-making and felting, making it both a technical manual and a useful snapshot of 19th-century manufacturing know-how.
Because reliable sources uncovered here do not provide further verified details about his life, background, or dates, it is best to remember him through the expertise preserved in that work. For readers interested in historical crafts, his writing remains an informative window into an old and highly specialized trade.