Friday, June 20, 2014

Hair Wreaths: A Victorian Mourning Custom


Crafting Hair
Hair is one of the most unique and personal mementos people can give of themselves. Although taking hair and weaving it into memorial pieces has been done for hundreds of years as a way to remember a loved one, it was the Victorians who took the idea and crafted it into an art form.



Bracelet Band Made from Hair
Victorian Women
The Victorians had elaborate customs for any life event encountered; but this is one tradition that could take different shapes and forms. Hair jewelry allowed Victorians to carry a part of their loved ones with them in the form of bracelets, rings, brooches, watch fobs, even buttons: It was similar to putting a piece of hair in a locket. Hair from a deceased family member was usually made into a mourning wreath for remembrance.


Hair Receiver
Shaping Instructions
A mourning wreath could be made up of one member’s hair or a composite of an entire family. As family members died, hair was saved in a “hair receiver.” When enough was accumulated, the hair was fashioned into flowers and leaves by twisting and sewing it around shaped wire forms.


Godey’s Lady’s Book provided some patterns and advice on how to shape and create a hair wreath, but detailed works included the Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work published in 1867, and a catalog from the National Artistic Hairwork Company. Shapes were then combined into a U-shaped wreath with the most recently deceased’s hair having a place of honor in the middle of the wreath. This is why wreaths may have a difference in hair colors and textures.

 
Family with Different Hair Colors
Different Colored "Petals"
A family hair wreath was a way of telling about the family and its history; the same way a family tree indicates who members of a certain family are and their relationships, today.

Smaller Hair Wreath
The open-end at the top of the wreath symbolized the deceased’s ascent to heaven. Wreaths were then placed in shadow boxes and displayed with the open end up, like a horseshoe.
Large Hair Wreath

Not all hair wreaths were for mourning. Churches, schools and other groups might make a hair wreath from the current congregation or school. Everyone would contribute hair to be woven into the wreath shape.



Hair Memento
Bell Jar Sculpture
Hair could be made into small shapes and sent to families who lived far away as a memento of a recently deceased loved one.

It also could be crafted into three-dimensional sculpture and covered with a glass dome to set upon a parlor table.



In the early 1900s hair jewelry could be purchased through Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Today, hair wreaths can be found at auctions and estate sales. The value of hair wreaths continues to increase, with prices anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the size and condition.


Tony Kendall, Owner
In the small resort town of French Lick, Indiana there is a very unique museum: Body Reflections and Antique Hair Museum www.bodyreflectionsfrenchlick.com. This collection of antique hair items, including hair wreaths, were collected by salon owner Tony Kendall who started displaying his collection of vintage razors, permanent-wave machines and hair art in his beauty salon - Body Reflections.


Displays at Leila's Hair Museum
Leila’s Hair Museum www.leilashairmuseum.net in Independence, Missouri is the only official hair museum in the world. 
Leila Cohoom

Owner Leila Cohoon, a hairdresser,  bought her first piece in 1952, and that's how the collection began. Today, the museum boasts of over 600 hair wreaths and over 2,000 pieces of jewelry, all crafted from hair.



Hair Loops
Intricate Details
Regardless of how we view the art of mourning hair wreaths and hair jewelry today, it was a way for our ancestors to keep a piece of their loved ones close in an era when remembering was all that mattered because You are never really gone, as long as you are remembered”.

~ Joy

Friday, June 13, 2014

In Memory of Anne Frank - 85 Years After Her BIrth



Anne Frank
Eighty-five years ago yesterday, Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born.
Anne won our hearts through the teenage journal she kept during WW II that was later made into a book, The Diary of a Young Girl.

Anne was born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany to a Jewish couple, Otto Frank and his wife Edith. In 1933, Ann’s family moved to Amsterdam; the same year the Nazis took over Germany.


Nazi Germany
Adolph Hitler
By 1940 Europe had changed: Adolph Hitler was dictator and Jews were being “removed” from society. Anne and her family were trapped in the Netherlands along with thousands of other Jewish families. In 1942 when Anne’s older sister Margot received orders to report to a work camp, the Franks went into hiding.


Bookcase The Hid Doorway to Annex
Inside Secret Annex
The family hid in what was called the “Secret Annex” with another family, the Van Pels; two small rooms located on the second floor of a building that had housed her father’s former business. A ladder to the attic offered them a chance to get up on the roof and take in fresh air at night.

Nazis Occupation
As a teenager during the war years, Anne wrote about her life, her family’s struggles, and their experiences while hiding from the Nazis during the German occupation.

Peter van Pels
She shared her problems about dealing with her mother, the gradual understanding that developed between her and her older sister, her feelings of irritation toward the other family sharing their secret rooms, and her infatuation, and first kiss with Peter van Pels.



Anne Writing
It was during this time that Anne realized she wanted to be a journalist. Her entry on Wednesday, April 5, 1944 stated in part: “When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that's a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?”



 

Concentration Camp
Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
In August 1944, the Frank family was betrayed to the Nazis, taken to a concentration camp and sentenced to hard labor. After arriving at the camp, half the passengers were taken directly to the gas chambers. Anne and her sister were spared because they were young and could work. The Frank sisters were forced to haul rocks and dig holes along with hundreds of other women and girls.




Anne Frank
Margot Frank
Anne, and her sister Margot, died of typhus in March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; victims of the Holocaust. Anne was 15-years-old. Just a few weeks later, on April 15, the camp was liberated by Allied troops.


Otto Frank
1st Edition in Dutch
The story could have ended there but Anne’s father, Otto Frank, (the only member of the family to survive) was given her notes retrieved by family friends from the secret annex. Moved by her wishes to become a published journalist, her father used her original diary and her edited version to create her book. The diary, and book, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 (her 13th birthday) to August 1, 1944.

Due to Otto Frank’s devoted efforts, Anne’s diary was published in the Netherlands in 1947. Soon after, the book was released in Germany and France, with publication in Britain and the U.S. in 1952. The world learned of what had happened to so many millions of people – through the voice of one young girl.

Anne’s personal thoughts and unguarded words about life, war, suffering, and social persecution under the Nazis regime has touched generations and made those injustices come alive as few others could.

In a passage in Anne’s diary she states, “I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

And, indeed she has. Her words and her legacy live on - 69 years later …

~ Joy



Friday, June 6, 2014

21 Facts About D-Day: 70 Years Ago Today

Operation Overlord
It was 70 years ago today, June 6, 1944, when World War Two Allied forces invaded Normandy, France by air and sea, in what was known as Operation Overlord: the Battle of Normandy.



General Omar Bradley
Despite poor weather conditions, air attacks began around midnight in Normandy with over 2,200 British and American bombers taking part. The American amphibious assault included over 73,000 men, 15,600 from the airborne divisions with General Omar Bradley as commander of the American contingent. This was the largest operation in U.S. military history since General Ulysses S. Grant landed at Bruinsberg during the Civil War.

Overlord Beach Assualt

Landing on Omaha Beach
The U.S. was concentrated on taking two beaches code named Utah Beach and Omaha Beach. The British were assigned to Gold Beach, Sword Beach, and Juno Beach where the Canadians also assisted. A total of 156,000 Allied soldiers landed on the shores of Normandy: The largest invasion by sea ever accomplished in history.


Allied causality figures of those injured, missing or dead have been estimated around 10,000 with U.S casualties alone numbering over 6,600. The British sustained approximately 2,700 and the Canadians had over 900.



Cemetery Overlooks Omaha Beach
American Causalities
Although the Allies were victorious in the Normandy invasion, the loss of life was great. On June 8th the U.S. First Army established the first American cemetery in Europe for the war dead. Today, it is known as the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, and is located near Colleville-sur Mer, France. It is the final resting place for 9,386 U.S. WW II service men, and also one aviator killed in action during WW I; Quentin Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt.


Memorial
A memorial for the 1,557 Americans who died in the Normandy campaign but could not be identified or located was constructed from 1953 - 1956. The names of those missing men are inscribed on the walls of the curved memorial at the east end of a retaining pool.


In honor of the day, here are 21 facts about D-Day you might not know:

1) Operation Overlord included American, British and Canadian armies.

2) Operation Overlord was originally planned for June 5th but weather forced a one-day postponement.

3) The “D” stands for the secret “day” scheduled for the invasion.

4) Allied forces trained for one year before the Battle of Normandy.

5) Over 156,000 allied troops landed in Normandy on D-Day.

6) Close to 2,300 landing crafts carried men, vehicles and supplies to Normandy.

7) This was the largest seaborne invasion in history.

8) During the first eight hours of the assault, over 11,000 Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties.

9) The Germans flew over 300 sorties, most never reaching the beaches.

10) Six parachute regiments, made up of over 13,000 men, were flown from nine British airfields.

11) Dummy paratroopers called Ruperts were also dropped in different locations to confuse the Germans.

12) Over 18,000 parachutists were on the ground before dawn.

13) At 6:30 am, Allied soldiers began going ashore across a 60-mile front.

14) Those first off the landing crafts carried over 80-pounds of gear.

15) German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was not present when the invasion began – He was in Germany, celebrating his wife’s birthday.

16) German U-boats sank only one ship, a Norwegian destroyer named Svenner, on D-Day.

17) Germans were captured at a rate of 30,000 per month from D-Day through December 1944.

18) Texas housed 33 detention facilities during the war for German prisoners.

19) The National D-Day Memorial is located in Bedford, Virginia: the home of 21 men who were killed on D-Day. www.dday.org.

20) The National D-Day Museum is now known as the National WWII Museum and is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. www.nationalww2museum.org

21) General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued this order to begin the Battle of Normandy: "I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."


~ Joy