Anna Tanner’s Hair Wreath
November 2, 2011 by Taylor Speer-Sims
Human hair and wire on silk inside wooden box
c. 1859 to 1900
Junior Year
American Military University
Photo taken by author
For Tanner House Museum
Taylor Speer-Sims
Taylor Speer-Sims
November 2, 2011
Anna Tanner’s Hair Wreath
The hair wreath art form has been in existence for
millennia. The life work was important as mementos of love and friendship. This
type of art ended in the twentieth century, but it was still popular in the
Victorian times, when Amy Tanner created one for her mother using her siblings’
tresses. The Tanner hair wreath has many different techniques within one work
of art. While only a verbal history, it is generally accepted that the
horseshoe wreath in the Tanner House Museum is a Tanner artifact.
The Tanner House Museum is located in Aurora,
Illinois. William and Anna Tanner, in 1857, commissioned the house to be built.
The Tanners had ten children all of whom lived to adulthood, save the eldest
daughter, who died when she was two years old. The home housed all children,
and one servant, in the Victorian times. The house museum has many of the
Tanner original items as artifacts. One such artifact is a hair wreath that is
in the solarium (also called the upstairs parlor) in the center front of the
home (Speer-Sims, 2).
Hair wreaths were an art that originated sometime in
the thirteenth century and passed down from mother to daughter until it swiftly
ended in 1920 with the culmination of women’s suffrage and possibly affordable
photography. Women of all classes would begin their training in needlepoint,
and also hair wreaths, starting at about nine years old. Girls would learn to
do their hair wreaths with embroidery floss or yarn first and would eventually
be able to “work” in up to thirty techniques. These could be small boutonniere
size, or extremely large (Williams).
There is a current misconception that these were
mementos of death (memento mori); however they were actually the opposite. Hair
wreaths were made by the living, of the living, and for the living, in most
cases (Williams). Portraits, and then later photographs, were extremely
expensive until about the 1920’s (Williams, Putzier). One way of keeping a
memento of your friend and/or loved one was to collect a small portion of hair
(Williams). Many a love poem and romantic novel of old would regale lover’s
locks. What would the lover do with it? They would make them part of a hair
wreath or jewelry (Williams). This was sort of similar to a friendship bracelet
of today, only more personal.
The personal memento Anna Tanner received by her
third daughter, Amy, was a hair wreath that included hair of all of her nine
remaining children. The only provenance of this particular piece of art is that
Amy did the work with the hair of the other Tanner children, and this was not
on any type of written type of documentation. In fact, this news was verbally
passed down from museum curator to curator via descriptive discussion. Other
than this oral tradition, there is no other proof (Putzier).
What has been proven was that Amy was born on
November 28, 1846, and the youngest child, George Washington Tanner, was born
December 19, 1854 (Still). Given the above information about hair wreaths and
the ages of the young ladies, she probably did not begin it until 1855, by
which time the youngest had been a year old. Mother Anna died in Aurora in 1900
and was survived by Amy (Still). So, by deduction, this hair wreath was worked
sometime within a forty-five year period, from 1855 to 1900.
Somewhere within that sixty-two years Amy reportedly
gathered hair from her siblings to create this work of love for her mother.
There are definitely nine colors in the wreath, although they can be very
difficult to differentiate. They range from a white blonde to a gray. The gray
would have been presumably her oldest brother Augustus, who was born in 1841
(Still). This would indicate that the artifact was created at a later date than
1855 because he would have only been fourteen. While some people do go gray
from as early as eighteen, fourteen seems too young (Bewley). So, to deduce
even further, the Tanner Hair Wreath would have been made between the years
1859 to 1900, but still probably later than the 1859 date because most people
do not go gray that early.
The gray hair and the rest of the children’s hair
was made into the wreath, and put into its own shadow box that fit it perfectly
in size. The box is in an octagon shape where the face measures 13½” across and
is lined on the inside in a cream, rough silk.. The glass face is 9½” across
and surrounded by gold trimming that is ½” x ¼”, but equals to 1” in width
because there is a slight bulbous line that separates the two gold areas. There
is a wooden area around the gold that is dark brown with black spots. This is
1” wide, but angles down toward the glass so that it only takes up ¾” in width.
The box itself is 5½” tall where the base is 3¾” and the lid is 1¾” tall when
sitting on its back.
 |
| Side of Homemade Shadowbox |
 |
| My notes on measurements |
Side of Shadow
box
notes by
author
Photo
taken by author for Tanner House Museum
The hair wreath is a horseshoe shape with a
“boutonniere” in its center. The first eighty years had the wreath in an
upside-down horseshoe, however after research this author informed the curator
of the Tanner Museum that when it was upside down, “it allowed all the luck to
run out” (Williams). The piece was promptly righted, and hung so that there
would be no more running of the luck! The horseshoe is two inches across at the
opening and opens up to six inches across in the center. It takes up seven
inches from the top to the bottom.
Notes by author (me)
The center boutonniere is 3½” x 2½”. The flowers in
the horseshoe range from 1” in diameter, to 2½” in diameter, with most being
around the 2” mark. The boutonniere flowers are from an inch to 1½” in
diameter. All of the flowers have metal wire stamens that are made in a spiral.
At the top of the horseshoe, there are hearts that meant, “they were given to
someone that they loved” (Williams).
 |
| Detailed photos of Anna Tanner’s Hair Wreath taken by author for Tanner House Museum. |
Amy lovingly used multiple techniques within this
one hair work. The back of the horseshoe has been wrapped so tightly with the
darkest color hair so that there is no wire showing. Techniques of the hair
wrapping include short loops and large loose loops within just one flower.
Other hair was knotted, or twisted, or knotted and twisted. Sometimes the wire
is visible, other times it can only be seen as the stamen. One thing for
certain is that all of the flowers are all very technical, not to mention
beautiful. This artwork could not have been created in one day, but must have
taken weeks, months or even years to complete.
Detailed photos of
Anna Tanner’s Hair Wreath taken by author for Tanner House Museum.
The work of art Amy Tanner completed for her mother,
Anna Tanner, can still be seen today at the Tanner House Museum in Aurora
Illinois. Even though the exact date is not evident, it probably had been
created between the years of 1859 to 1917. Hair wreaths were not usually
memento mori, but were actually creations of love and friendship of living
loved ones. The technicality of the piece is evident in the numerous ways the
tresses were processed throughout this one work of art. Anna Tanner’s Hair
Wreath may not be thought of as a typical piece of art. It is, however, a
very beautiful piece that was given by a daughter to her mother that she loved.
Works Cited.
Bewley,
Lindsey. “I’m 24 and I Have Grey Hair! What’s Going On?” Scienceline: The
Shortest Distance Between You and Science. New York University,
October 8, 2007. http://scienceline.org/2007/10/ask-bewley-grayhair/. 3
November, 2011. Web. 3 November, 2011.
Putzier,
Jennifer. Personal interview. 20 October, 2011, 27 October, 2011, 1 November,
2011.
Speer-Sims,
Taylor. “Tanner House: Domestic Help Included.” 22 July, 2011. APUS,
Research paper for
Antebellum America class. Print.
Still,
Fannie Simpson. Family Record. N.d. Aurora Historical Society Archives.
Original
document.
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