A TREATISE ON THE STRUCTURE, COLOR AND PRESERVATION OF THE HUMAN HAIR
Philadelphia: Printed by J. Perry, 1841. First Edition. Hardcover. 16mo: 107, [1, blank] pp. with a frontispiece portrait and 2 plates. Original cloth binding, with gilt-stamped titling and blind-stamped borders. The ink address stamp of Hancock's Pharmacy in Baltimore, Maryland, appears at the top of the Contents page and on a prefatory black leaf. Some general shelfwear to the boards; else about very good. Scarce, OCLC locates only five holdings: Syracuse, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Cleveland Public Library, and the Library of Virginia.
"The singular structure and delicate formation of the human hair - the analysis of its several properties and peculiarities - the causes of its varied colors - the wonderful and rapid changes in them - the best method to remedy them when displeasing - the elucidation of the different diseases to which the hair is liable - the surest means of preventing or effectually eradicating them - the means of preserving and beautifying the hair - and evincing how a full growth should be appreciated as conductive to health and additional to beauty - were the primary objects of my unwearied investigations, physiological studies and practical experience" (from the author's preface).
"By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, white Americans had largely naturalized a gender binary for hair length: men’s hair was naturally short, and women’s hair was naturally long. This transformation of a stylistic choice into a biological fact bridged the bodily logics of both humoral medicine (in its decline) and empirical medicine (in its ascent). Hairdresser Thomas Bogue’s 1841 scientific treatise on hair exemplifies the former. 'The beauty of long hair,' he wrote, 'has, from time immemorial, been viewed as a highly prized ornament'; this ornament belonged almost exclusively to women because 'the length of the hair is greatly increased by the abundance of the phlegmatic matter with which it is continually supplied, and causes it to augment to a great degree; there is more of this moisture predominant in women than men' (Editorial Staff, Harvard University Press: "The Culture of Hair in Nineteenth-Century America"). Very good. Item #80118
Price: $750.00