On Hairwork

Helen Sheumaker’s work Love Entwined: The Curious History of Hairwork in America examines the once popular craft of hairwork in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. Through her investigation of primary sources, including letters, diaries, poems, fictional literature, oral history, and actual examples of hairwork, she successfully draws numerous conclusions concerning social and cultural trends. Centering her study around the development of the art of hairwork, she traces its function from identifying a personal relationship to its involvement with mourning practices and finally to the fashionable sentimentality hairwork pieces held.
        Beyond the changing functions of hairwork, Scheumaker recognized several cultural developments that the uses of hairwork indicate. Because the craft of hairwork remained a middle-class practice throughout its existence, she notes how it became vital in the development of a middle-class identity. This middle-class identity helped to show the economic differences with the working class, and reflected gender roles in the nineteenth century. Focusing on fancywork in general, including hairwork, Sheumaker identifies the role of women as mothers and wives, proves their knowledge of the market and their financial savvy, and shows how hairwork gave them a way to express themselves. The best and most entertaining example of this is of Nida Bailey, who was nearly successful in her aspiration to weave a hair wreath of President Lincoln and his cabinet and military officers.  While each of these cultural points seem to work with the use of primary sources, Sheumaker found hairwork to provide insight into so many cultural and social ideas, that occasionally she seems to push hairwork within the context of nineteenth century America. Upon completing the book, I thought of two things. First, that I had subconsciously french-braided my own hair at some point while I was lost in the reading. Second, I began comparing her evidence and conclusions to those of Deetz. Who, if either, was more successful, and why?
           Kenneth Ames studied a different aspect of Victorian culture in his article “Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian America,” as he investigated the hall furnishings in upper middle class homes. As I read Love Entwined first, my mind wandered back to those middle-class women Sheumaker wrote about, and I wondered if the groups of people who owned these artifacts overlapped—how many upper middle class women lived in homes with both a hall stand and a hairwork wreath?  Ames’s analysis on the Victorian hall as a reflection of the division of nineteenth-century society struck me, as I have wondered if the corset reflected a similar division: those who wore them on a daily basis, and those who laced others into them on a daily basis.
          Karin Dannehl’s article “Object Biographies: From Production to Consumption” took a closer look at the methodology of object study than performing an actual study, even with her examples of kitchenware. She mentions the shortcomings of current material culture methodologies (including, I assume, Fleming, Prown, and Montgomery), particularly because they fail to place the object within context. I recognize the importance of this, but believe it could be included in Fleming’s cultural analysis step within his methodology. Dannehl highlights the importance of an object biography and a life cycle study and analysis within a method of study. While parts of her article can be included in at least two of the existing models, her points were helpful in thinking about my object within a larger context. She notes challenges within the study of material culture, and provides advice on how to overcome these challenges. I will certainly refer back to Dannehl when working on my future object exercises.

  Helen Sheumaker, Love Entwined: The Curious History of Hairwork in America, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).

  Kenneth Ames, “Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian American,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 9 (1978): 28. 

  Karin Dannehl, “Object Biographies: From Production to Consumption,” in Karen Harvey, ed., History and Material Culture: A Student’s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources (London and New York: Routledge, 2009).