Hairstyles for women
In an earlier blog post, we explored the 'taxonomy of fashion', which can be used to date photographs. This was based on a blog post by Walter Cook from The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, which focused on photographs of middle class women from 1850s to 1920s. Apart from clothes, other the 'tricks of the trade' which let you play photo detective, include paying close attention to hairstyles.
Women's hair can be a defining feature, marking their own personal sense of style. Some points in history have celebrated more elaborate 'dos' more so than others. The images below are drawn from 1909/1910 and were taken by Herman John Schmidt (1872-1959), an Auckland photographer based at a studio in the Edson Building, 270 Queen Street. This photographs are from the collections held at the Sir George Grey Special Collections at the Central City Library and you can find out more about Schmidt here.
Walter Scott notes that the piled up hair look came into its own in 1907. Looking through our collections, we certainly have a large number of Schmidt photos which fall into this category. Requiring a lot of pins and ornamentation and all without the aid of a hairdryer, these look very high maintenance styles!
Also popular in the Schmidt photos are very large bows and feathers, ringlets (not just for girls!) and frizzed hair (this was also popular during the 1880s-1890s) and bouffed hair. Long hair, an ever popular hairstyle is generally only seen worn down by children but our photo of Nurse Cooper shows that women did also occasionally 'let their hair down' so to speak!
Auckland Libraries has a two books by Maureen Taylor in its heritage collections relating to hairstyles, family history and photographs as well as a fascinating book about the tikanga of hair for Māori.
Hair up:
Big bows:
Feathers:
Frizzed or bouffed hair:
Long hair:
Ringlets (even for boys - see if you can spot the boy!):
Women's hair can be a defining feature, marking their own personal sense of style. Some points in history have celebrated more elaborate 'dos' more so than others. The images below are drawn from 1909/1910 and were taken by Herman John Schmidt (1872-1959), an Auckland photographer based at a studio in the Edson Building, 270 Queen Street. This photographs are from the collections held at the Sir George Grey Special Collections at the Central City Library and you can find out more about Schmidt here.
Walter Scott notes that the piled up hair look came into its own in 1907. Looking through our collections, we certainly have a large number of Schmidt photos which fall into this category. Requiring a lot of pins and ornamentation and all without the aid of a hairdryer, these look very high maintenance styles!
Also popular in the Schmidt photos are very large bows and feathers, ringlets (not just for girls!) and frizzed hair (this was also popular during the 1880s-1890s) and bouffed hair. Long hair, an ever popular hairstyle is generally only seen worn down by children but our photo of Nurse Cooper shows that women did also occasionally 'let their hair down' so to speak!
Auckland Libraries has a two books by Maureen Taylor in its heritage collections relating to hairstyles, family history and photographs as well as a fascinating book about the tikanga of hair for Māori.
- Taylor, M. (2005). 'Uncovering your ancestry through family photographs', Cincinnati: Family Tree Books.
- Taylor, M. (2013). 'Family photo detective : learn how to find genealogy clues in old photos and solve family photo mysteries', Cincinnati: Family Tree.
- Hooker, M. (2008). 'Makawe: gaining an understanding of the tikanga for hair', Rotorua: Mereheeni.
Hair up:
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Murphy (on right), no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-55982 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Stitt, no location, 1910, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-60862 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Nolan, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-56831 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Russell, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-57524 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Sawyer, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-56921 |
 |
Ref: Herman Schmidt, Robertson group, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-58304 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss F Adams, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-56314 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Logan, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-58182 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Miss Morpeth, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-56760 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Nurse Cooper, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-57923 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Missie Beck, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-55621 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Missie McLean, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-58165 |
 |
Ref: Herman Schmidt, Warn children, no location, no date, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-56228 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Master Holyday, no location, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-55871 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Mr Frederick in fancy dress, no location, no date, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-57252 |
 |
| Ref: Herman Schmidt, Missie Rona William, no location, no date, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-57064 |
Comments
Post a Comment
Kia ora! Please leave your comment below.