Label Text:
Locks of hair from two individuals knot together in this brooch, set in gold and surrounded by pearls. The inscription engraved on the back reads:

J.E.
Died March 10th, 1824
AE 48 yrs

M.D.E.
Died March 15th, 1852
AE 74 yrs

Hair jewelry like this served as memorials to dead loved ones in nineteenth-century United States and Britain. As mourning became a secular and personal affair, an industry grew for relics made of hair, including jewelry, albums, pictures, and wreaths, and teeth mementos, and teeth mementos. Worn by the living and warmed by clothing and skin, this pin holds traces of two intertwined lifetimes that continue to exist even in death.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1964.157

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.