More Process, Less Whatever

It has happened to every archivist who has spent any time processing the personal papers of a nineteenth century family: the sudden discovery of a lock of human hair either pinned to a letter, or folded away in an old envelope. Victorians had a thing about hair, so much so that they actually created artwork out of the strands recovered from hairbrushes. Modern archivists also have a thing about hair, especially when discovering it in the soup they ordered for lunch at the local greasy spoon. Finding samples of the same stuff amidst the promissory notes and laundry lists of an 1880s era banker is probably more creepy than it is stomach churning, but it is unsettling regardless, especially when one considers other body parts that may turn up!