Using a hybrid approach that merges art historical and material culture inquiry, this dissertation recognizes the centrality of hairstyles in figure painting, both portraiture and genre, and photography of the mid- to late nineteenth century in the United States. After establishing the pervasive reach of hair’s culture and industry (Chapter One), it argues that artists exploited women’s hairstyles as a way to convey commentaries on such topics as conspicuous consumption and monetary wealth (Chapter Two), social class and the development of the modern woman (Chapter Three), the New Woman (Chapter Four), publicly exposed women à la toilette and en déshabillé (Chapter Five), and overt sexuality (Chapter Six). It considers the specific ways in which artists depicted hair and how that treatment helped achieve their goals. It affirms that hair deserves serious attention with regard to its cultural significance, specifically within the American art historical context of the nineteenth century, which has not been addressed in any publication to date. The study begins in the mid- to late 1860s with the considerable rise in new advertising, products, and services related to hair after the Civil War and how these phenomena were treated by artists. It proceeds to discuss the entrenchment of the Cult of True Womanhood of the 1860s and 1870s, which had a patriarchal and conservative effect on hairstyles and their depiction in art. The emergence of the New Woman, which brought about a radical consideration of hairstyles about 1890, provides an end point. By tracing the development of women’s hairstyles, this dissertation contends that the study of hair should take its place with readings of other visual culture in paintings, such as clothing, furniture, and interior decoration that broaden our view into the motivations behind cultural changes.

The study highlights the following artists: Aaron Draper Shattuck (1832–1928); Thomas Pritchard Rossiter (1818–1871); Eastman Johnson (1824–1906); Winslow Homer (1836–1910); Alice Austen (1866–1952); Mary Cassatt (1844–1926); and John Singer Sargent (1856–1925).