Woven hair wreaths and lockets find new home in Brooklyn
Around 50 lockets, wreaths and framed pictures made from human hair go on long-term public view in Brooklyn, New York, on 27 September.
The group was gifted to the Morbid Anatomy Library in Brooklyn by the family behind Leila's Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri, which closed recently after more than 30 years. The Brooklyn display opens with an open house devoted to Victorian hair work, according to Morbid Anatomy.
Hairwork means jewellery and keepsakes woven from human hair. In the 1800s many families kept a lock of a loved one's hair in a brooch, ring, wreath or picture. It was intimate. It kept a person close.
The Missouri museum was founded by Leila Cohoon, a hairdresser and hairdressing instructor who died in 2024. She started collecting in the 1950s and built a holding of about 3,000 hairwork antiques, according to The Art Newspaper.
That collection is now being dispersed. Cohoon's granddaughter, Lindsay Evans, is giving pieces to dozens of organisations across the United States. Recipients include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
Morbid Anatomy's founder and creative director, Joanna Ebenstein, travelled to Missouri with artist Karen Bachmann to choose the Brooklyn group in collaboration with Evans. The result is almost 50 pieces.
What makes this stand out is the fit. Morbid Anatomy studies art, death and curiosity collections. Its library holds books and objects tied to mourning customs, medicine and odd fascinations. Hairwork sits easily there.
Visitors can see the new arrivals from 27 September. The library says they will remain on long-term view.
