Magazine article
HAIR: The Pile Albums of Peter A. Browne
Natural history, v 127(1), pp 29-35
01 Dec 2018
Abstract
Using wool samples he gathered from around the world and a special instrument he invented to measur e the relative strength and elasticity of each, he determined which sheep bree ds would be best suited for the fabrication of different commercial products, from felt hats to woven blankets. In 1849 the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture declared his measuring device "essential" to the manufacture of wool products and lauded it for enabling farmers "to select the best wooled sheep with much more certainty than can be done by the eye or hand alone, consequently to improve their flocks by rejecting those of inferior quality." If a historical figure whose hair he wanted was no longer living, he would contact that person's family, knowing that the next of kin almost always retained such keepsakes. [...]Browne was able to add hair samples from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and several signers of the Declaration of Independence to his "cabinet." Browne's worldwide collection of hair enabled him to compare people of different ethnographic backgrounds and document the development of humans at different ages, from their start in the womb ("piles of the foetus in all the stages of gestation"), to the end of their lives, or even beyond ("hair grown after death"). Since Peter Browne began amassing his national collection in the 1840s, the science of hair analysis has come a long way.
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Details
- Title
- HAIR: The Pile Albums of Peter A. Browne
- Creators
- Robert Peck
- Publication Details
- Natural history, v 127(1), pp 29-35
- Publisher
- Natural History Magazine, Inc; New York
- Number of pages
- 7
- Resource Type
- Magazine article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991019330625504721