Mrs. Louisa C. Hughes, Virden, Illinois
Hair Wreath, 1873 - 1874. 
hair, wood, glass, 48 by 41 inches
Illinois State Museum collection,
Gift of Mrs. Velma Jesse Hall and three other surviving grandchildren of the maker, Aurora, Colorado (704292.1972.44)

Mrs. Hughes collected hair from 71 of her friends, relatives, and townspeople to create this wreath. Sections are labeled with the name of the donor. She painstakingly braided and wove the hair over wire forms and arranged them into a wreath of 'flowers and leaves". The local newspaper published a photograph and story of her finished wreath. 

Mrs. Hughes was a widow at the time she made this wreath. She traveled from home to home teaching dressmaking and crafts to young ladies. Women of this time used to decorate the tables, shelves, and walls of their homes with arrangements of shellwork, hairwork, needlework, and many other crafts.

In past centuries, people kept locks of hair in lockets and scrapbooks. Hairwork was a popular craft. Hair jewelry was made to mourn deaths. Some hair wreaths were mourning wreaths made in memory of someone who died. Others, like this one, serve a more social and decorative function. Hairwreaths were framed and hung on a wall.

If you were going to make a decorative craft for your home, what materials would you use to make it? 

Would you ever make something out of hair? Why or why not?