Years ago, I unpacked a trunk sent to us from my grandmother’s house after her death. Nestled between all the doilies and embroidered pillowcases was something wrapped in tissue. It was soft, and had a heft to it. As I unwound the old paper, I wondered what textile treasure I might find within. Out fell two hanks of human hair. I won’t lie; I jumped and I may have screamed. My mother thinks they are my great-grandmother and grandmother’s braids from 1928, when they both bobbed their long hair to suit changing fashions. That hair now lives in a box in my closet, carefully labelled “Creepy Box of Hair,” along with a braid of my own, and ponytails from each of my sons.

There’s hair in the Library stacks, too.

Walt Whitman Papers in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection: Miscellany, -1918; Lock of hair. - 1918, 1834. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mss1863001576/.

Peale, Charles Willson, . James Madison, Bust Portrait Miniature, Facing Slightly Right 1783. Verso of oval portrait miniature in gold case, showing James Madison's hair in braided pattern. , 1783. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/95522406/.

While the recto of this Peale portrait of Madison is probably better known, this bit of hair art made from Madison's hair is what interests me. If you want to make your own hair art, you might follow use a design from the National Artistic Hair Work Company, which are mostly related to traditional funerary and mourning art. 

National Artistic Hair Work Company. Catalogue of Designs for Artistic Hair Scenery and Ornaments. [Chicago, 1886] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/ca10002593/.

You could follow the instructions in the Self-instructor in the art of hair work, dressing hair, making curls, switches, braids, and hair jewelry of every description compiled from original designs and the latest Parisian patterns by Mark Campbell. New York :Campbell,1867. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.tz1wiy 

Today is All Soul’s Day in several Christian traditions. Various cultures mark this day of remembrance of those who have passed from this life. Saving locks of loved one’s hair as a memento was a fairly common in Western Europe and the United States. It became especially prevalent during the Civil War among middle- and upper-class white people, perhaps because of the large number of young men killed. Several of the Library’s collection of Civil War portrait photographs contain a lock of hair. This example has a chain or braid made from hair.

(verso)

(recto)

Unidentified soldier in Union uniform with saber and revolver in locket with chain of braided hair. United States, None. [Between 1861 and 1865] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010650764/.

Saving a loved one’s hair seems to be related to the keeping of relics in general. Hair can be removed from the body without pain, and can stand in for the physical presence of a loved one.  The hair can be held, twined, hidden. There are so many messages and meanings a lock of hair can contain, and purposes to which it could be put.  Does your culture celebrate All Souls Day or the Day of the Dead? Do you keep relics or physical reminders of your loved ones? Do you have a lock of hair in a baby book, or some hairwork jewelry?

Clay, Cosack & Co. One little curl of auburn hair--Words and music by J.H. McNaughton / Clay, Cosack & Co. , ca. 1868. [New York: published by Wm. A. Pond & Co] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/97510879/.

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