Nineteenth-century Americans often saved or exchanged locks of hair, constructing jewelry or keepsake wreaths of their kinship networks. Delicate braids of hair also interlace to frame the famous silhouette of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake. In more recent decades, hair has become a powerful political medium. Middlebury professor Ellery Foutch shares research about hair-based works in local collections and explores the meanings of hair in American culture, past and present.
Photo of Emma Adele Myrick Buck (1850-1928), Floral hair wreath, ca. 1865-1870. Human hair, wire, beads, and ribbon in gilt and glass frame, 21 x 19 x 3 in. Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, VT. Gift of Media Buck, 1937.003.
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