Marquette Regional History Center offers: Victorian Hair Art Workshop

Marquette Regional History Center offers the Victorian Hair Art Workshop Saturday, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Hair art is claimed to date back to at least the twelfth century and possibly much earlier. The earliest surviving example at Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Mo., is a brooch from Sweden with a piece of hair enclosed in a crystal case dating to 1680. Jewelry with woven hair on the back of miniature paintings was common in the 18th century. Overtime the forms changed and parlor decorations and three-dimensional woven jewelry became more popular during the peak of hairwork during the 1850s-1880s.

The heyday of hair art coincided with the rise of photography in the mid-nineteenth century. Hairwork was often a memorial object, but could also be given for other sentimental reasons, as a token of affection for a lover or to remember a relative who lived far away. Photographs were seen as being cold and impersonal and provided less insight into a person’s character. Hairwork on the other hand had more emotional value placed on it because it had been physically connected to the loved one. It was seen as an outward expression of the person’s inner sentiments, and physically represented a past emotional state thus provoking a reflection on that experience.

Instructor Elizabeth Gruber is the Research Librarian at the John M. Longyear Research Library at MRHC, she received a MLIS and Graduate Certificate in Archival Administration from Wayne State University in 2011. For six summers in middle and high school, she participated in youth Civil War era first-person reenactments at Fort Wilkins State Park in Copper Harbor, MI through the Future Historians program at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum. While in this program she learned how to make Victorian Hair Art. She later worked at the park for four summers as an adult interpreter. Beth is providing materials (both real hair and synthetic), although people can bring in their own hair to work with.

Supply fees are included with the workshop fee. $20 due upon registration. Call 906-226-3571 to register today. Meet at the Marquette Regional History Center classroom (or gathering hall).