When the companies opened, merged, and closed — and who learned the trade from whom. Built entirely from the makers profiled on this site.
Help us fill in the historyKnow when a shop opened or closed, who bought whom, or who a bootmaker learned from? Send it our way, with a source if you have one, and we'll add it to the timeline and family trees.
Draft previewThis page isn't linked from the menu yet. It shows what the profiles already tell us; gaps and approximate dates are marked, and it grows as profiles are added.
The chart runs from 1850 to today. Bars that reach the right edge are still operating.
Dots are milestones and a lighter start means the date is approximate. Click any row for its story.
Changing hands
Every acquisition, merger, sale, and closing recorded in the profiles, in order.
Teacher-to-student lines recorded in the profiles. Names with an underline have their own profile.
Two dates to checkBuilding this turned up a couple of disagreements between profiles worth settling:
Charlie Dunn's retirement: the Charlie Dunn page says 1988, the Texas Traditions page says 1986.
The Texas Traditions page says Lee Miller trained nine years under Dunn before Dunn opened the shop in 1977, but also that Miller first met Dunn in 1977.