Hair documents, ephemera, and prints collection, 1717-ca. 1990 (majority within ca. 1770-1890)

Summary

Creator:

Anonymous

Abstract:

The Hair documents, ephemera, and prints collection is comprised of 103 items, mostly printed materials related to hair, shaving, and wigs. Included are ephemeral advertisements, trade cards and price lists, government acts relating to hair and wigs, manuscript letters and indentures, caricatures and cartoons, broadsides, sheet music, other miscellaneous prints, and one braided lock of hair.

Extent:

2 boxes

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Lauren Seroka, March 2018

Background

Scope and Content:

The Hair Documents, Ephemera, and Prints collection is comprised of 103 items, mostly printed materials related to hair, shaving, and wigs. Included are ephemeral advertisements, trade cards and price lists, government acts from British monarchs George II and George III relating to hair and wigs, manuscript letters and indentures, caricatures and cartoons, broadsides, sheet music, other miscellaneous prints, and one braided lock of hair. The material spans from 1717 to the late 1980s, with the bulk of materials dating from the late eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. A majority of the materials are from England, although some are from Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Scotland. Many of the items are satirical and are commentary on fashion and the idea that the local barber was the "jack of all trades." Two similar items, a comical manuscript resume of "Isaac Morgan" and a fictitious advertisement for the varied services of "Isaac Factotum" offer exaggerated illustrations of how a barber did more than cut hair. Of interest is a series of mid-nineteenth century Valentines which center around the love-lives of barbers. Also included is a letter from Alex Campbell to his relative John Campbell, the Cashier of the Royal Bank of Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1745. There is also sheet music from the composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), A Pastoral Song, better known as My Mother bids me bind my hair. Of note are prints by British satirists William Hogarth, Isaac and George Cruikshank, and Thomas Rowlandson.

Biographical / Historical:

The peruke, or powdered wig, came into vogue because of a syphilis epidemic in the late sixteenth century. A visible side effect of this disease is hair loss, which triggered public shame. In order to protect reputations, victims often sought out wigs to cover their bald heads. Wigs were fairly simple in design until the mid-seventeenth century when King Louis XIV of France and King Charles II of England, both facing graying and thinning hair, hired teams of professional wig makers. Their elaborate wig styles were copied by an aristocracy looking to gain favor with the monarchs. Over time, the popularity of wigs spread across countries and social classes, and various wig designs became associated with different professions. Oils, fragrances, and then later powder, were applied to the wigs almost daily, to control appearance and cover-up unwanted odors. Although women rarely wore wigs during this time, they often used powder on their natural hair. As women's hair styles became taller and more elaborate in the mid-to-late 1770s, pieces of false hair, feathers, ribbons, and other ornaments were fastened to the natural hair.

Wigs remained popular after the deaths of Louis XIV and Charles II, partly for practical reasons. Wigs were a way to manage lice, a not uncommon problem; men could shave their heads to eliminate lice, and wigs could be boiled to exterminate the pests. The denouncement of the aristocracy during the French Revolution brought a rejection of the wigs associated with monarchy, and the radically short coiffure à la Titus and à la victim, for both men and women. Across the Channel, the 1795 tax on wigs in England decreased their popularity. Colonial and revolutionary America followed the less extreme of these trends. Natural hair, allowed to grow and dressed up in the back in a queue, was often powdered to resemble a wig. By the late 18th century, hair was often left unpowdered. At the center of hair dressing and wig making were barbers. Since the Middle Ages, barbers performed a myriad of tasks. In addition to cutting and dressing hair and wigs, they also served as surgeons and dentists. They performed bloodletting, leaching, inoculations, and tooth extraction deep into the 19th century.

Acquisition Information:

2004. P-2322, P-2323, P-2799 .

Arrangement:

The materials are roughly organized by general themes: government and corporate documents, advertisements, barbers, shaving and beards, visual satires, and oversized materials. Within each section, the materials are organized roughly by chronological order.

Box 1: Small ephemera and prints

• Government and corporate documents [6 items]
• Advertisements [47 items]
• Barbers, shaving and beards [11 items]
• Visual satires [19 items]
• Hair locks [1 item]

Box 2: Oversized materials

• Original art [2 items]
• Visual satires [12 items]
• Advertising [1 item]
• Manuscripts [4 items]

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

The Charles H. Townsend papers includes a lock of hair from Eliza Mulford Townsend, the mother of Charles Townsend.

The Evans family photograph collection contains locks of hair from multiple family members.

The Norton Strange Townshend family papers includes multiple locks of hair, a wreath made of hair from 16 family members, and jewelry containing hair.

The Portrait of older man set into locket with braided hair includes a locket with a daguerreotype and a piece of hair.

Many of the manuscripts collections at the William L. Clements Library contain locks of hair. To discover other collections with hair, search "hair" in the Manuscripts Finding Aids.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Barbers.
Eau de Cologne.
Hair.
Hair--Care and hygiene.
Hairdressing.
Hair preparations.
Legislation--Great Britain.
Patents.
Prints shelf.
Poetry.
Surgeons.
Wigs.

Formats:

Advertisements.
Broadsides.
Cartoons (Commentary)
Clippings.
Ephemera.
Etchings.
Facsimiles.
Illustrations.
Indentures.
Legislative acts.
Oaths.
Pencil drawings.
Photographic prints.
Pictorial envelopes.
Poetry.
Price lists.
Receipts (financial records)
Recipes.
Satires (Visual Works)
Sheet music.
Trade cards.
Valentines.
Watercolors.

Names:

Great Britain. Parliament.
Laurie & Whittle.
Lever Brothers and Unilever, ltd.
R.P. Hall & Company (Nashua, N.H.)
S. Marks and Sons (London, England)
North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792.
Basire, James, 1730-1802.
Baskett, John, 1666 or 1667-1742.
Bobbin, Tim, 1708-1786.
Bowles, Carington, 1724-1793.
Browne, Hablot Knight, 1815-1882.
Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811.
Catnach, James, 1792-1841.
Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.
Cruikshank, Isaac, 1756?-1811?
Darly, Matthias, approximately 1720-approximately 1778.
Eyre, George.
Gaucher, Charles-Etienne, 1741-1804.
George II, King of Great Britain, 1683-1760.
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820.
Grimm, Samuel Hieronymus, 1733-1794.
Haydn, Joseph, 1732-1809.
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764.
Humphrey, G., active approximately 1820.
Hunt, Charles, active 1825-1857.
Hunt, George, active 1824-1831.
Pitts, John, 1765-1844.
Rimmel, Eugene.
Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827.
Sanders, Thomas (Engraver)
Strahan, Andrew, -1831.
Wood, J. T. (Joseph Thomas), -1874.
Wrigley, James.