Artwork Details
5 x 13-3/4 x 3-1/2 in.
Accession NumberPurchased with funds provided by Benjamin B. Green-Field Foundation
CopyrightPurchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2003
Benjamin Green-Field, "Chicago's Mad Hatter," and his sister Bessie opened a millinery store in Chicago in 1920. They combined their first names to create the famous Bes-Ben logo. Within eight years the duo had expanded their business to include five shops, and their hats had become a necessary adornment for Chicago's socialites.
Bes-Ben's hats were generally sensible and traditional until 1941, when Green-Field's creativity and sense of humor began to surface in his designs. Among the unusual items that began to appear in his hats were firecrackers, skyscrapers, animals, bugs, fruit, doll furniture, palm trees, cigarette packages, and even Folies-Bergère dancers.
The prices for Green-Field's creations, which originally ranged from $37.75 to $1,000, tended to exclude women on a tight budget. Every summer, however, he would clean out his inventory for the new season at a midnight sale, marking down the hats to as little as $5. Then, at two in the morning, he would toss the rest out of the front door to waiting bargain hunters.
Content Disclaimer and Usage Rights
Metadata about the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection comes from Newfields’ records and research. In some cases, information may be incomplete and research is ongoing. Newfields’ goal is to have as up-to-date metadata as possible, therefore, this information is subject to change. Newfields collections’ metadata is available under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) waiver, which allows for re-use without legal restrictions.
Artworks that appear in the image file(s) above may be in copyright or have other legal and/or cultural restrictions to their use. For clarity, Newfields does not claim copyright to the image files created by Newfields of artworks in the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection. Newfields makes every effort to ascertain the copyright status of artworks in the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection. Please refer to the RightsStatements.org statement above for information about the current copyright status of the artwork. Additionally, some artworks may include Local Context’s Notices or Labels, which are tools that support Indigenous communities to reassert cultural authority in heritage collections and data.
Additional information about Newfields’ reproduction guidelines can be found in the Licensing Resources.