A New NEDCC Story
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Conservation of Sarah Davenport's Hair Album
Part 1 - History of Victorian Hairwork and Background of the Davenport Album

Yes, - you read it right: a HAIR Album.

NEDCC's Associate Book Conservator Mary French presents a 2-part story on the conservation and digitization of this unusual album from the Davenport House Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Starting in 1829,  Sarah Davenport collected locks of hair from her family and tied them to the pages using silk ribbons. As strange as it might seem today, Victorians often used human hair from friends and family to create wreaths and jewelry, commonly referred to as "hairwork." Victorian hair albums are a rarer phenomenon than other types of hairwork and are also a culturally different phenomenon.       

The album created several unique challenges for conservation treatment, and in Part 1, Mary gives us background on the tradition of hairwork, as well as the historical background of this particular volume.  

LEARN MORE: 

Read the story and view images of the album before treatment that illustrate the challenges that conservators had to overcome:  http://www.nedcc.org/story-dav-pt1      

Watch for Part 2 of the story to be released next Tuesday, including a description of the conservation treatment and digitization carried out for the binding, hair locks, and silk ribbons.       

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NEDCC | Northeast Document Conservation Center    -    http://www.nedcc.org
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