Entertaining at the Art Park: Happy Hatter

To add to the festivities at the Art Park during time traveling adventures, Dr. Evermor also built the Happy Hatter, a sculpture that has an antique hat press as its starting point. One day, Dr. Evermor came out to find an antique hat press just sitting by a tree at the Art Park. He recognized it as belonging to a friend, Homer Daehn, a woodcarver who helped with restoration for the Circus World Museum in Baraboo. Homer had gotten the felt hat press from Chicago and Doc had been admiring it for a while. Doc decided he wanted to make something from it that would bring out the spirits of the people who had used it to make hats. Within a week, he had completed his project.

To fulfill his vision for the hat press, Dr. Evermor made a few additions. First, he added a motor to it—which required Lady Eleanor to load the heavy motor onto a sled and pull it across the yard. Doc made the hat press mobile by putting it on a cart of sorts with four wheels. Best of all, Doc created two clown faces, a smiling happy face and a sad frowny face, from upside-down oxygen masks adorned with scrap metal pieces. Lady Eleanor painted the whole thing, making the wheels glowing yellow, the motor a lively blue, and bringing the clown faces to life with a variety of colors.

With its clown faces and bright colors, the hat press is an immediate draw for children. Lady Eleanor has used it through the years when children come to the Art Park to witness Dr. Evermor’s launches or even when school groups have come just to look around. Although the hat press was originally designed for felt, Lady Eleanor now uses aluminum foil to create the hats. Sometimes, she has a station set up where the children can paint the hats also.

Author Credit: Leslie Huber