Hairy Memories: Hair albums used braided hair to create memories

Charlie Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, “Hair is vitally personal to children. They weep vigorously when it is cut for the first time; no matter how it grows, bushy, straight or curly, they feel they are being shorn of a part of their personality.” It is a feeling that adults must never entirely get over, either. How many of us have scrapbooks that contain a lock of our hair from when we were a baby or when we got our first haircuts? When you look at it does it bring back memories of your childhood? Of a time of youthful energy and innocence? Ann Hull, director of the Franklin County (Pa.) Historical Society – Kittochtinny, tells a story of how she was doing genealogy research one time and among some family items, she found an envelope with a lock of Read more…

Hairy Memories: Hair albums used braided hair to create memories

Charlie Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, “Hair is vitally personal to children. They weep vigorously when it is cut for the first time; no matter how it grows, bushy, straight or curly, they feel they are being shorn of a part of their personality.” It is a feeling that adults must never entirely get over, either. How many of us have scrapbooks that contain a lock of our hair from when we were a baby or when we got our first haircuts? When you look at it does it bring back memories of your childhood? Of a time of youthful energy and innocence? Ann Hull, director of the Franklin County (Pa.) Historical Society – Kittochtinny, tells a story of how she was doing genealogy research one time and among some family items, she found an envelope with a lock of Read more…