Victorian Hair Jewelry

Ah, the Victorian period -- creepy, and yet, fascinating. Perfect for me and my "tendency to cheery morbidity" (the protagonist's self-description in Gregory Maguire's Lost). I've spent many hours with the dead: in the research facility, in skeletal collections, in cemeteries, in family history. Respect and remembrance are important.

Victorians popularized mourning jewelry in memory of the dead in the 19th century. Hair jewelry was sometimes made as mourning pieces or reminders of mortality, but could also be made as tokens of love. One of our family heirlooms just so happens to be a piece of hair jewelry. Not just a lock of a dead loved-one's hair, but a necklace of intricately woven human hair with a locket. I'm generally not a fan of other people's hair (when not attached to a head), but the artistry of hairwork can't be denied.

Inside the locket is a photo of a woman who I am fairly certain belongs to the Webel family. Below is a photograph of my great great grandmother, Annie Webel Miller. That nose and jaw-line are unmistakable. Perhaps it's her mother (my great great great grandmother), Elizabeth Thiess Webel, who died in 1894?

Surprisingly, hairwork is not an entirely lost art. Just visit the Victorian Hairwork Society or the Victorian Hair Artists Guild. Or, for some beautiful mourning jewelry browsing, visit the Art of Mourning. Personally, if this piece of hair jewelry did not belong to one of my ancestors, I'm not sure I would want it because it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.