Annotated Bibliography

It was found through the literature review that no material culture studies have yet been written about brushes and their relation to hair, hairstyles, and identity formation. The information pertaining to brushes found for the current project were collectors' guides and archeological studies. The annotated bibliography has thus been separated into six categories that historically contextualize the current project regarding Victorian hairbrushes and combs. This section also provides a note on excluded information, and a note on book location which may be of use for scholars researching similar topics.

• HAIRBRUSHES AND COMBS
• HAIR / HAIRSTYLES / HAIRSTYLISTS
• SOCIAL MEANING OF HAIR
• GENDER AND CLASS
• SEX / IDENTITY / PERFORMANCE OF SELF
• ARCHITECTURE OF VICTORIAN HOMES
• ADVERTISING
• RELATED WEBSITES

A NOTE ON EXCLUDED INFORMATION

Excluded from this annotated bibliography is information on black hair. Afro hair has been a fruitful area of scholarship. It has included ideas of hair as a source of empowerment, as a symbol for forming group solidarity, as part of black identity formation, as an area of contestation between blacks and whites, and as a niche of resistance. Also excluded in this annotated bibliography is information on body hair such as leg hair, beards, and pubic hair. This domain has also been quite fruitful, but not as many books and articles have been written on this subject as is the case with black hair. These forms of hair are excluded because they do not pertain to my object: the brush. Finally, questions of masculinity and hair are only considered when compared to women. Masculinity and its relation to hair and hair brushing is an area of study that is not well documented. The current study excludes men's hair in order to concentrate on the gender identity of Victorian women.

A NOTE ON BOOK LOCATION

The following books have been searched for in the University of Toronto Library system (call numbers ending in ROBA, PRAT, GERST, ROMU, TRIN), the University of Western Ontario Library system (call numbers ending in WEL, BRC), and the London Public Library system (call numbers ending in LPL). If the books were unable to be located in the Toronto system, the London system where consulted. If the reader is unable to access the books in either Toronto or London, the call numbers provided should be equivalent to any library using the library of congress system in a university library, or a Dewey decimal system in a public library.

When the books were unable to be located in Toronto or London, the inter library loan office at the University of Toronto was notified. I have provided the bibliographic information for books that have not yet been located. As indicated, some of the annotations have been paraphrased from academic book reviews, abstracts, or amazon.com.

Painting of 'Lady Lillith' (Gitter 937) The Lady gazes into a mirror while she combs her hair.

HAIRBRUSHES AND COMBS

Ambrosiani, Kristina. Viking age combs, comb making and comb makers. The Light of Finds from Birka and Ribe. Ed. Kristina Ambrosiani. Stockholm: Gotegorgs Offsettryckeri, 1981. DL 21. A45 ROBA

Ambrosiani, a German archeologist, has written on Viking combs, the process of their creation, and who created them. This book has been useful for the current study because it identifies antler, horn, and bone as the primary material used to make combs. These materials are similar to those that the collectors of modern combs have used. Ambrosiani discusses whether these materials were local or imported. This line of inquiry will be useful in the current study in order to push the researcher beyond simply identifying the manufacturer, but also in researching where the natural material used for the combs was obtained. Furthermore, the book identifies the name of certain properties of the comb that will be used in describing Victorian combs, such as simple single comb, simple double comb, back, rivet, connecting plate, tooth, and tooth plate.

Bachman has written a guide that explains the history of combs. The book identifies the origins of 300 combs and provides pictures. Bachman explains easy ways to find out whether combs are made of celluloid, horn, or tortoise shell. The book speaks of more typical colouring for the combs and gives the proper titles for imitation jewel, gold and silver inlays. This book will be abundantly useful for dating combs and deciphering their material properties.

Hague, writes this book as a collector of brushes. She develops collector tips on precious stone, turtle shell, ivory, coral, and gilt metal. She also speaks about the social etiquette that spurred the development for the ornament on combs. This annotation is paraphrased from a review on Amazon.com. The book appears to be useful for this project in dating and getting a historical background of the combs to be studied.

Tuohy, an archeologist, has written about Iron Age British and European combs. She focuses on wear patterns on the teeth, style, and decoration in order to establish regional differentiation. Similar to Ambrosiani's work, this book is useful as it identifies terminology for combs but also adds terminology such as plate and direction of grain. Tuohy also provides suggestions for what certain wear patterns implied about usage.

Melchoir-Bonnet, a French academic at the College de France, has written a well-received book which looks at the history of the mirror as a material culture artifact. She first goes over the history of mirror making. Then the book looks at philosophical, psychological, and mythological understandings of the mirror and how these have changed over time depending on the needs of society. This book will be useful as both a model for material culture research, and as a project that includes some of the same questions as those which will be developed in the current study. The overlapping questions about the brush and the mirror include perceptions of self and performance of self.

Drawings of early Victorian hairstyles. (DeCourtais 125)

Byer, Robin. The History of Hair: Fashion and Fantasy Down the Ages. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 2000. Inter Library Loan

Byer has written a popular overview of hairstyles using historical artwork. She reviews hairstyles from Egypt to the modern day explaining them in detail. This book may be useful in dating, and explaining the hair styling procedures of the royalty and gentry from the Victorian period, thereby being of use for the current study.

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

This exhibit and brief history edited by Humphrey looks at hairstyle as art. The short book focuses on hair as symbol throughout time and cultures, the history of hairstyles, and important hairstylists. The book also gives consideration to the clothing worn and how this affected the hairstyles. The book has a considerably large section on Victorian stylists and hairstyles which will be beneficial to this project.

Corson, a well-cited writer of hair theory, has written this book as a guide for determining the look and creation of historical hairstyles. The book has an entire chapter on women's hair in the nineteenth century. Each hairstyle is illustrated; each style also includes an explanation of the hairstyling techniques required, and an explanation of the environmental factors that led up to the style. Corson also provides illustrations of various combs that were needed to hold the hairstyles in place. The book is quite similar to DeCourtais book which was published ten years later. This book will be very useful for identifying the hairstyles and the hairbrushes required for the women under study. It will also help to elaborate on the symbolic and verbal expression section of the methodology because various poems of the period are cited, along with opinions from Victorians themselves.

DeCourtais, a historian of fashion, has written this book for students of costume. There is a brief introduction to each chapter, describing the black and white sketches, contextualizing the headdresses, hairstyles, and hats worn by English women. DeCourtais concentrates on early, mid, and late Victorian head fashions, citing decades in which each fashion was popular. This book will be extremely useful for the current project to show which hairstyles were created by which brushes in given periods.

DeVillermont, a French Victorian upper class author, provides a history of French hair fashion. She concentrates primarily on high fashion and many of the sketches and comics in the book are of royalty. This book is useful to the current study because it provides specific dates for hairstyles. The book will also be useful in its examples of appropriate hairstyles for certain times of year, stages in life, and times of day. This information from an upper class lady is useful in determining her ideas of cultural capital, explained by Bourdieu. These understandings could, in turn, become useful to the project at hand in order to observe class differentiation in hairstyles, and where the various styles were used.

Freedman, an American scholar, writes that the hair is associated with the soul because of its placement on the head, which is associated with knowledge. He goes through various cultural metaphors concerning hair in the West, and then evaluates the significance of hair for other cultures. Freedman's understanding of hair will help to expand the section on symbolism and verbal expression in the methodology. The article spans from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Freedman goes on to explain the history of the barber and its connection to medicine. This focus on the barbershop will be useful for the current study because it helps to expand on pre-salon hairstyling practices.

Herzog, a political theorist at the University of Michigan, has written about the social commentary that was made about barbers in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century. Using a series of plays, diaries, letters, and books from the period, he documents the changing status of the barber. What is particularly important about this article for the current study is the identification of servants as participating in their master's hair care. This revelation will help to put a class dimension into the current study. If the upper class had their hair done by their servants, does this mean that hairstyles and hair care was similar for maid and mistress? Or were the hairstyles that masters demanded too difficult to create on one's self. The article will also serve as a reminder that hair care was done both in the private and public sphere, by both people considered as professionals and by amateurs.

Comic depiction of Victorian woman having her hair styled. (DeVillermont 793)

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

This article, by French academics Roberts and Galano, criticizes Zdatny's work for not taking into consideration the meaning of the boyish cut for the women who chose to sport the style. They question what the style meant in the cultural imagination of France in the 1920s. This article is useful as an example of the importance of identifying the symbolic meaning of artifacts to the people who own and wear them. The article will be taken into consideration when interviewing owners about their brushes: it is important not to forget what a hairstyle or brush represented to the wearer.

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

Trasko has written this book for a popular audience. The book includes beautiful paintings and photographs that illustrate such topics as the hair fetishism, hair mythology. These illustrations will help to elaborate the section on symbolism in the methodology for the current project. The book also has an emphasis on hairstyles in relation to clothes worn, and to styles as advanced by hairstylists. The information on the influence of hairstylists will be very valuable to this project because it brings a different understanding of changing hairstyles. Other theorists, such as Zadtny, reviewed here place more focus on societal influences as factors for changing hairstyles.

This article, by the French academic Zdatny, looks at the boyish haircut of the 1920s and places it into context. The new hair fashion derived a lot of controversy because it was seen as masculine. The cut itself was coterminous with the woman as shopper, and the democratization of fashion and should be understood in these terms. The boyish cut was dependant on women's autonomy through shopping. Zanti's observations are similar to McAlexander and Scouten's article about transition hairstyles. If the current study extends into the early twentieth century this article will be useful in a practical sense. However, if the current research remains within the Victorian period the phenomena of the haircut as marker of social transition will be considered in this earlier period.

Zdatny, a well-published French historian of hair, has studied the correspondence of Emile Long, the dean of French coiffeurs, to his English associates between 1910 and 1920. These correspondences of the changing hairstyles of high and lower fashions are contextualized within the history of France at the time. Zdatny cites the democratization of consumer culture, the changing nature of female labor, and the new ideas of women within emancipation as factors that help to change hairstyles. Although this article is past the time period of the current study, it has been useful in creating a connection between French and British fashion while understanding that the fashion changes may not be popular in England due to a difference in context.

Engraving of hairstyle appropriate for visiting after dinner. (DeVillermont 808)

Berg, Charles. The Unconscious Significance of Hair. London: George Allen, 1950. Inter Library Loan

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

Blersch, a historian, discusses the popularity and types of hair jewelry in nineteenth century Europe and America. This article serves as an excellent supplement to Miller's article on hair jewelry as fetish. This article is important to the current study because it highlights the importance of hair to the Victorian public as a symbol of connection between the jewelry wearer and the hair giver. This article will be useful to elaborate the symbolism section in the methodology.

Cooper, a well cited author on hair, has written this book to include a biological explanation of the nature of hair according to sexologist and biologists. The author takes the perspectives of Ellis and Darwin at face value, rather than as a historical perspective. The books analysis is sometimes too simple, and the author makes conclusions that have not been backed up. For example, she believes that men of all times and places prefer women's hair to be down, but that women insist on putting their hair up which makes them seem 'fake' to their men folk. Thought this book is dated, it is important as one of the founding books on the symbolism of hair. Readers are advised to peruse the book with a critical eye.

Firth, an anthropologist, has written this book to add an anthropological perspective on the study of symbolism and its functions. In a chapter entitled "hair as private asset and public symbol," Firth argues that hair is a very personal element of the body, but it is often used as a socially differentiating mark. Hair can be used as a way to express certain views about society or as a strong symbol of sexual differentiation. This book will be very useful to the current study that seeks to connect the private practice of hair brushing with societal influences upon the hairstyles of individuals.

Gimlin, a sociologist at State University in New York, studies contemporary American middle and upper class hair salons. This article is interesting as an expansion of Lawson's article that studies the class of the clientele because it considers the class-based interaction between stylists and their clientele. The author states that stylists use their attachment to beauty culture to nullify class differences between themselves and their clientele while clients use their professional status to reject beauty culture and stress social differences. This study brings up questions of the relationship between stylists and clientele in Victorian England. It also begs the question of whether or not non-workingwomen rejected beauty culture in any way. Veblen would suggest that upper and middle class Victorian women embraced beauty culture. What were the different dynamics in the Victorian salon that allowed for both client and hairstylist to embrace beauty culture?

Gitter, a scholar from John Jay College in New York, has written an article on the meaning of Victorian hair as developed in art. She describes how hair can reveal a woman's virtue or dangerousness or can be used to create a textile to integrate the family or to create a web to ensnare them. This article will be useful for the verbal expression and symbolism sections of the methodology. It will also be excellent for establishing the connection between hair and identity in the Victorian imagination because the article explores character types in novels and fairy tales who are personified by their hair.

Halpike, a scholar at Dalhousie University, has written this article to question the idea of the subconscious symbolism of hair reaching through history and across ethnicities. This article is a response to Leach's essay on "magical hair" reviewed herein. Halpike disagrees with Leach that hair and the phallus are equivalent to one another. Instead, Halpike argues that hair is associated with animal divinity, the soul, mourning, sexuality, and societal boundaries. This article will be very useful for the section on symbolism and verbal expression in the methodology section of this website.

Hershman, an academic at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has written this article on the rituals of hair grooming in contemporary India. He shows that hair grooming has sexual connotations and that there are rules about whom may groom another's hair. In India there are taboos surrounding women's hair. Similar taboos may exist in Victorian England with letting one's hair hang free, which suggested sexuality and sometimes prostitution. Rules regarding who was allowed to groom a woman's hair may have also existed in Victorian England. This article does not pertain exactly to the study at hand but it does bring up questions that may be important to hair in Victorian society.

Lawson, a sociologist at Pittsburgh University, studies lower, middle, and upper class hair styling institutions in America. She finds that salons and barbershops are class and gender marked spaces that serve as places to affirm class and gender identities. This article is contemporary, but it will serve as a probe in considering questions of identity affirmation of the upper class Victorian who frequented salons.

Leach has written this essay about the unconscious significance of hair. He argues that the head is the phallus and the hair is the sperm. Cutting the hair is equal to castration. This Freudian interpretation of hair has taken to task by Hallpike who has written an essay entitled "Social Hair". This article will be useful to the current study in the methodology section on symbolism.

Engraving of woman with appropriate hairstyle for a dance. (DeVillermont 788)

Jacques, a French historian of hair, has done a massive study which includes a history of hairdressing beginning in the 1300s, a view of how hairstyles changed through time and across national boundaries, a history of the medical knowledge of hair, and a history of techniques of shampooing, colouring, perming, and the manufacture of hair jewelry. This book will be very useful to the current study as it is the most comprehensive history of hair and hairstyling seen to date.

McAlexander and Schouten, academics at Iowa State University, have studied change in hairstyle as a marker of life change. Changing hairstyles is seen as a ritual demonstrating a release from parental control and a change in living space. The authors see stable hairstyles as symbols of status continuity. This is a contemporary article but it will help the current study in questioning issues of changing hairstyles within the life of one individual. This article may be useful in conjunction with Steel's book on Victorian fashion which shows a transition in dress codes from unmarried to married, as well as from young to older women. The article may also be fruitfully aligned with DeVillermont's book which shows a frequent change in Victorian hairstyle depending on time of day and activity.

McCracken, a big name in material culture, has written a study of hair in twentieth century Europe and America. This book is written in a popular style for general and academic audiences. It focuses largely on styles' and colors' function in the creation of identity. Hair, believes McCracken, is highly transformable and allows a person to audition and show off new transformations of self. This part of his book is similar to the work of McAlexander and Schouten as well as Roberts and Galano. McCracken suggests that the constant transformation of self is a relatively new phenomenon. The current study will use this idea to explore whether Victorians were engaged in the transformation of self through hair, or if they changed their styles for alternative reasons.

McFarquar and Lowis, British psychologists, have studied the effects of hair treatment on men and women. Women's self esteem is shown to rise after visiting the hair stylist while men's remains the same. Men's reaction to hair cutting may be due to a sense of bodily loss. This interpretation is similar to the one forwarded in "Magical hair" where a haircut is equivalent to castration. "Effects of Hairdressing" is a contemporary study of a specific type and number of people. However, the knowledge that men feel a bodily loss were women do not may help to elaborate on some of Foucault's ideas of the docile body, if the current study goes in that direction.

Miller, a professor of English from the Pennsylvania State University, studies nineteenth century hair jewelry from England and the United States. This chapter focuses particularly on hair jewelry which incorporated a loved one's or a deceased person's hair. Miller reviews the significant academic works on hair and considers the historical understanding of its magical properties. The evolution of hair jewelry through the nineteenth century is traced by using literary sources and artifacts. This work will be important to the current study because it highlights the symbolism of hair for the Victorians. The article also incorporates hair myths that will be useful in the symbolism and verbal expression categories of the methodology.

Synnott, a sociologist at Concordia University, has done research on the constant reformation of Western society's perception of the body. This will help to place the Victorian concepts of the body into a continuum and help to explain the philosophical construct in which statements about the self are made. Synnott's understanding of the body is informed by Foucault. Therefore, he focuses on the everyday and minute workings of the body including a chapter on hair and its manipulation through the webs of power. This section will be very useful for the current study because it develops the idea of the manipulation of private hair for the public persona, one of the main mandates of the project.

Synnott, a sociologist, studies the symbolism of hair over the past forty years in America, Canada, and Britain. The article is partly an expansion of Firth's understanding of symbolism reviewed herein. Synnott expands on Firth's symbolism by noting the dichotomies that hair creates. For example male hair is the dichotomy of female hair, conservative hair is the dichotomy of radical hair, and body hair is the dichotomy of head hair. This leads to the understanding of hair as a symbol of personal and group identity. The article will be important to the current study because of its understanding of the subtle messages that hair can relate, and because of the hair and identity link established.

Weitz, a sociologist at Arizona State University, has written an article about the use of hair for social resistance. This is a contemporary article but it will be useful for my project in that it takes into consideration the similarity between accommodation and resistance. This idea will push the current study to look at nineteenth century hairstyles closely to detect differences that may indicate resistance.

This article, by the French academic Zdatny, studies conditions in hair styling shops at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He sees the changing of the shops as being influenced by the consumer revolution. The article looks at gender exclusion in the profession and the unions and compares the upper class salons to the lower class barbershops. Although this article concentrates on Paris (1890-1930), it provides ideas for this type of research in Britain. Also, the distinction between salon and shop will be useful to the current study if it brings in a class dimension.

Carving of maid cleaning after a dinner party. Calder, Jenni. The Victorian Home. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1977 (127). Notice the dishevelled hair representing working class womanhood, and perhaps sexual availability.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984. HM 251 B622613

Bourdieu, an influential French sociologist, has problematized the idea that the upper class can be emulated by the lower classes so that they 'pass' as upper class. Bourdieu believes that each class possesses cultural capital, tastes and knowledge that the other classes do not consider important. Due to cultural capital, which is acquired by being raised in a certain class, individuals are unable to pass unnoticed into classes to which they do not belong. Bourdieu's ideas are important in relation to Veblen and Butler's concepts of class, because his theory adds another element to class emulation and class parody. Bourdieu will be important to this study because his theory can help to explain the appearance of books on manners, behavior, and physical appearance in the Victorian period. Such advice books are identified in the section on primary sources, and will be consulted in the second term.

Butler, a queer feminist theoretician, views sex and gender as synonymous terms. She believes that drag queens and kings represent a subversion of what we understand as male and female ultimately leading to the understanding that sex itself is constructed. Perhaps these ideas could be extended to the cross dressing (which includes emulation of hairstyles) between classes in which Veblen proposes Victorian women engage. The middle class women could be taking part in a parody of the upper class women's hairstyle so that class distinctions become seen as constructs that then become irrelevant.

Retallack, a PhD student in history at the University of Toronto, has written on male shaving as connected to identity politics. He cites the history of barbershop shaving and how shaving moved into the home in the twentieth century. He also shows the changing class attitudes towards shaving. Finally, he connects recent concepts of masculinity to a clean-shaven face. Although this article focuses on masculinity, it is similar to the project that is currently being undertaken because it deals with issues of class, gender and identity. This article will be a reference for the importance of focusing on the object before drawing broader conclusions.

Veblen, an American Victorian Sociologist, was influential in his day and remains one of the highly regarded theorists of consumption. Veblen believed that upper class women wore large hairstyles and hats as a representation of their immobility. This immobility signaled their status as women of leisure. The middle class emulated these symbols of leisure but the man of the house had to work to maintain the upper class 'look' of the wife. Wives of both classes vicariously consumed and leisured for their husbands. In other words, women's large dress and hairstyles were symbols of the husband's affluence. This book will be useful for its understanding of femininity as a symbol. It will also be interesting to discover whether or not the historical sources about hairstyles support Veblen's theory of vicarious consumption for the benefit of the husband.

Painting of 'La Bell Dame Sans Merci' (Gitter 949) An example of a woman ensnaring a man with her hair. The woman has tied her hair around the man, using it to bring him under her spell of female sexuality.

Allen, D.E. "Fashion as a Social Process," Textile History 22, no 2. (1991): 347-58. TS 1300.T35H BRC

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

Davis, a sociology professor at the University of California, questions whether or not fashion can say something about its wearers. He studies the meaning fashion-objects are able to convey and by what methods the message is dispersed. Davis considers hair briefly in this book, however, his larger discussion of meanings communicated through objects may be more useful to the current study. Davis' work will be particularly useful for the significance section on methodology.

Entwistle, a historical sociologist of fashion, draws on the theories of Foucault, Bordieu, and Goffman in order to discuss fashion as part of the body's manipulation. She believes that nineteenth century Europe was a place in which understandings of appearance and identity began to diverge. People in the anonymous city either looked for identity markers on the fashion of others or viewed the other as hiding their true identity through fashioned identity. This idea can also be extended to hair as a marker of identity. This book will be useful to the current study because it reminds the researcher of the importance of the audience's perception. It will also be useful as a way to slot the opinion of Victorian observers of fashion as either skeptical, or not skeptical of the appearance of others.

Foucault, a prominent cultural theorist, has written a book on the surveillance society that appeared after early modern times. Foucault uses the prison as an example for the surveillance existent in schools, the army, the factory, and society in general. The idea that may be particularly important for the current study is 'the docile body'. Power, which is conveyed through surveillance, is thought to act upon and through the body influencing how it moves and displays itself. For the current study, if one understands the dinner party, the dance, and the calling practices in Victorian England as a part of the surveillance society, then one could study appropriate hairstyles as a performance created by power acting on the individual.

Goffman, a founding sociologist from the University of California, has written this book on how everyday life interactions are akin to theatrical experiences. A person presents himself in such a way as to guide the impressions that others have of him. He alters his gestures and his speech in order to give a convincing performance. This understanding of the performance of self in everyday life is important because it takes into account the inner life of the individual as well as the influence of the audience. In this way, the theory is different from that of Foucault, who believes the self is entirely generated from the outside. This view of the presentation of self will be important to understand when, where, and why certain hairstyles were deemed appropriate.

Kaschak, a feminist psychologist, has developed a counter theory to Freud focusing on vision rather than genitalia in the development of self. She studies the female identity and its relation to male voyeurism. Her idea of women's self being created through the eyes of the man is akin to Veblen's theory that women are symbols of their husband's prosperity. Questions about why women style their hair and for whom may be important for the current study.

In this chapter McCraken, a prominent visual culturalist, takes issue with the trickle down theory of fashion diffusion forwarded by Veblen and others. He replaces the trickle down metaphor with one of chase and flight was the lower classes seek upper class status markers and the upper class creates new forms of status as a result. Also, McCraken seeks to complicate the trickle down thesis by questioning the motivations of those in the middle. This will help to complicate perceptions of middle class hairstyle adaptation. One must be aware of the lower and the upper class fashions of the time in order to assess if the middle class are differentiating or imitating.

Mead, a founding social psychologist, gave lectures at the University of Chicago that eventually created this book. Particularly interesting are his ideas of how objects create imagination that may relate to further research on advertising in this study. Also useful will be the idea that language, gesture, and understanding transfers the external society into the conduct of the individual. The idea of the internalization of society acts in a similar fashion as does Foucault's docile bodies to show how individuals alter their bodies for the benefit of the social whole. The alteration of the hair that is sometimes seen as appropriate and other times inappropriate depends largely on Mead's idea.

Steele, a prominent historian of Victorian fashion, has argued that Victorians are not conservative, as contemporary society understands them to be; instead, they are aware and expressive of their sexuality. The concept that Steele forewords is important for the current study. This is the idea that erotic fashion became more acceptable as Victorian women became older, and erotic fashion was considered appropriate in some social settings as opposed to others. Steele's study will help to create an understanding of weather or not the hairstyles in photographs would be considered appropriate or inappropriate. As an extension, if a woman is sporting an inappropriate hairstyle her motif should be considered. Perhaps this form of questioning will link to Butler's idea of parody, or Veblen's idea of emulation.

Stone, an academic from the University of Minnesota, studies appearance as a factor in social interaction. He questions the effects appearance has on an audience, and the response that the audience gives on the basis of appearance. This study is relevant to research on brushes because hair is manipulated in order to create a specific appearance and a specific response.

Carving of Victorian home with indoor plumbing. (Calder 212)

Ames, Kenneth C. "Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian America." Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. Eds. Dell Upton, and John Michael Vlach. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1986. NA705. C58 ROBA

Ames, a popular name in material culture, studies social interactions created and incorporated in Victorian Hall Furnishings. This article is useful for the current study because it gives a basic overview of the architecture of Victorian homes. The study of brushes will take into account Victorian vanities and bedrooms in a similar way as Ames has studied the hall and hall furnishings. This article, like that of Retallack, will serve as a model for the end project on brushes.

This book includes the edited diaries of five of the Harris women who lived in London Ontario throughout the nineteenth century. These diaries are important to the project at hand because they will illuminate the lifestyles of the women who owned some of the brushes that will be discussed in the final project.

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

Judging from the title, this book would be useful for the current study. Unfortunately it has not yet been located. An annotation will be added once the book has been reviewed.

Rochberg-Halto and Csikszentmihalyi, academics from the University of Chicago, have interviewed three hundred Americans of all generations in order to find the meaning they have given to particular objects and the sense of self that is derived from this meaning. They believe that people are actively and constantly creating a world of meaning which shows who they are and who they want to become simultaneously. The meaning of objects is not the same for every individual. These ideas will be taken into account when researching brushes. Interview questions posed to the owners of the brushes will expand on the meaning that the brushes have for them and what they may have meant to past owners.

Victorian advertisement for hair products. (Loeb 123)

Barthes, Roland. The Fashion System. 1967. trans. Matthew Ward and Richard Howard. Berkely and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990. GT 521. B313 ROBA

Barthes, a very important academic of semiotics, has written this book on the 'language' of fashion in fashion magazines. The book is an attempt and a possible methodology for explaining systems of meaning. Barthes has chosen to explore the meaning of fashion through how it has been written about. This way of observing style will be useful for the current project in the second term when Victorian advertisements and magazine articles about brushes and hairstyles will be studied.

Goffman, a founding social theorist, reflects on the interplay between modern advertisements and everyday life. He believes that advertisements help to reaffirm and partially create differences and interactions between genders. This interaction between advertisements and self has made us understand our gender by watching others. If this same interaction between self and advertisements existed in Victorian England, then advertisements about hairbrushes may depict a great deal about femininity at the time.

This book will help to date and locate the silver brush set that will be studied in the methodology section.

Loeb, a Victorian historian at the University of Toronto, studies late Victorian advertisement as a world of fantasy. Loeb believes that Victorian advertising depicts the hopes, fears, and aspirations of the Victorian middle class. This work will help to place advertisements for brushes into a larger advertising context. It will help to illuminate religious, literary, and artistic symbolism and repetitive poses, costumes and movements.

Richards, a historian of Victorian consumerism, has written a book on the creation of consumerism in Victorian England. With K. Marx and G. Debord as his founding theorists, Richards puts forth the convincing argument that Victorians were involved in a consumerism based on fetishism and spectacle. Richards's study will be useful when studying the advertising for brushes in The Graphic and the Illustrated London News in order to see if brushes are shown to take on a life of their own, or to possess unusual transformative powers for their buyers.

History of Combs

Emily Palm, a wood working artist, has created this site as a gallery for her work. The link provided is a history of combs, with reference to the materials (wood, bone, antler, plastic) used in traditional hairbrush production. Also provided are books for collectors to identify the origin and date of combs. E. Palm has been contacted and will possibly provide an interview about the traditional production of hairbrushes.

Hair Quackery

This site provides information on strange hair product inventions of the nineteenth and twentieth century. The site is not academic, nor is it commercial, and the author(s) are not identified. However, it provides historical information in an authoritative manner. Also featured are advertisements and pictures of examples of early hair paraphernalia that may be useful for second term research.

Eldon House

This site has historic information about the Harris family. The family home was made into a museum and has largely kept a Victorian upper class style. This website will be important for the current study because one of the brush sets that will be studied in depth was bought by the Harris family in Japan in 1892.

A Brush with History: Vintage Hair Styles

Penny E. Dunlap has created this site as an extension of her Costume Gallery in Virginia. The text of the site is chatty but informative. The page that is provided looks at American Victorian Hairstyles. It provides an idea of the types of hairstyles that were popular during the time period of the current study. These hairstyles will be useful in this study because it allows for an understanding of what styles could be created with the hairbrushes at hand.

Hair Around the World and Hair Symbolism

Dale Callender Aggor, gives a brief overview of hair care and the meaning of hair for different ethnic groups. The page is useful as an introduction to hair's mythic properties. The tone of the page is one of popular history. The surrounding website is commercial, and should be avoided.

Hair History

Kathie Rothkop a hair stylist is the author of this site. The site is designed for a popular audience. The selected page provides a brief history of popular American hairstyles beginning in the 1890s. The history of hairdressing in France is also discussed, with an emphasis on the extravagant hair of the gentry.

Iroquois Hair Comb Education and Art Project

The Iroquois in Niagara Falls, New York have created an art exhibit and community education program about traditional combs. This site looks at art depicting combs as well as real combs. This site is interesting because it concentrates on the meaning and symbolism of Iroquois combs. Although it does not directly relate to the project at hand, it is a good example of the use of hairbrushes in artwork that may be considered in the final paper.