Not a hair out of place on this Tiny Tuesday<\/p>\n
Recently at the FRHS, several mementos of human hair have been discovered tucked here and there. Just last week, for example, a lock of hair tied with a ribbon was found in a diary, likely that of the woman who recorded her thoughts long before. Another lock of hair was found folded within a personal, chatty letter; it had been there since the 1890s. Keeping in spirit, it only seemed appropriate to highlight more human hair in our collection!<\/p>\n
Encased in this large oval brooch are blonde and brunette braids, meticulously plaited, and arranged under a thick beveled crystal cover that is secured within a brass finding with crimped edges. The piece dates to the mid-19th<\/sup> century, when large memorial brooches were a popular bauble to wear, when in mourning or not. We do not know who the hair originally belonged to, nor do we know who owned this spine-tingling brooch. It descended in a branch of the Hathaway family in Fall River and has been in the collection since 1956.<\/p>\n As was discussed in previous posts, Victorians had a sentimental attachment to human hair, particularly that of close friends and loved ones who had passed. Keeping a lock of hair from someone dearly departed \u2013 and fashioning it into jewelry \u2013 kept the memory of the person close. It may seem a tad disturbing today, but the phenomena continue, and we have our own strange attachments to the sentimentality of hair.<\/p>\n How many of us have a lock of baby hair from our first haircut, lovingly tucked away into a baby book?<\/p>\n Perhaps that book will one day make its way to a museum, and inside, an unsuspecting curator or cataloger will be surprised to find a little sentimental reminder of one long dead.<\/p>\n Sentiment to one may be macabre to another!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not a hair out of place on this Tiny Tuesday Recently at the FRHS, several mementos of human hair have been discovered tucked here and there. Just last week, for example, a lock of hair tied with a ribbon was found in a diary, likely that of the woman who recorded her thoughts long before….<\/p>\n