Vest
United States, 1855-65
Gift of the Napa County Historical Society
2009.1001.11
By the mid-nineteenth century, male attire was configured into a standard three-piece suit consisting of a jacket, vest, and trousers. Almost a uniform, the three-piece suit was worn for business daywear, country sportswear, and formal eveningwear. Though the variations were more subtle than those seen in womenswear, men could find ways to express their personality and style within this sartorial framework.
"As the hair is the only part of our beloved friends which can be kept in memoriam, it is natural that we should desire to preserve the treasure in some manner that will testify our appreciation of its value..." -Ladies' Fancy Work, 1876.
Locks of hair have long served as sentimental and tangible reminders of deceased or far-away friends and close relations. Among family, friends and romantic partners, exchanging a lock of hair was a sign of mutual esteem and deep affection. Upon the death of a loved one, locks of hair were often cut and kept as a way to both honor and remember the dead. As suggested by the opening quote, hair degrades very slowly if carefully stored. Thus, hair was both an intimately personal souvenir of a specific person and an (almost) everlasting memento. Objects made of human hair also served as memento mori, or reminders of the transiency of human life, for those who wore or owned them.
In its most basic form, a hairwork memento consisted of a snippet of hair enclosed inside a locket or ring. In these instances, the hair was simply stored inside an item of jewelry. There are also examples of hair used as a medium for creating two-dimensional pictorial and abstract images, such as this late 19th century panel featuring both hairwork patterns and an image of the deceased. The most fascinating examples of hairwork consist of elaborate jewelry made almost entirely out of human hair. This type of hairwork jewelry enjoyed peak popularity from the 1850s through the 1880s, dying out almost entirely by the early years of the twentieth-century.
Hairwork necklace
1850-1890
Gift of Andrea Tice
2008.46.101
