Independence, Missouri– INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — Century-old wreaths of human hair fill the walls of the Lily Hair Museum, and glass cases are filled with necklaces and watch bracelets woven from the strands of the dead. There are also locks of hair allegedly belonging to former presidents, Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, and even Jesus.
For nearly 30 years, this hair art collective in the Kansas City suburb of Independence has attracted an eclectic group of grifters that have included the likes of heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne.
But Leila Cohoon, the museum’s namesake, died last November at the age of 92. Now her granddaughter, Lindsay Evans, is busy returning the collection of more than 3,000 objects to museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
“Every time I come here, I feel it here,” Evans said Monday while touring with representatives of the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston who left with about 30 items. “This place is hers. And so I feel like this process of reshaping her collection has helped me grieve her in a way that I didn’t realize I really needed.”
It all started in 1956 when Cohon, a hairdresser, was shopping for Easter boots. Inside an antique shop, she found a gold frame filled with strands of hair twisted into flower shapes.
“She said forget the Easter shoes,” Evans said. “My grandfather always said this was the most expensive piece in the museum. Look what he started with.”
Evans keeps this to herself.
This type of art peaked in popularity in the mid-19th century when women wrapped the hair of the dead in jewelry or told their family histories by intertwining their loved ones’ curls into wreaths.
But by the 1940s, poetry had fallen out of favor, as memories were captured in photographs, Evans said. Additionally, “this artwork was not celebrated because it was mostly made by women. So, in the larger museums, they don’t have a lot of this.”
Her grandmother salvaged some from the wreckage, wrote a book and taught classes on the art form, training a new generation of artists.
Hair art was often housed in elaborate frames of original glass, so when her grandmother began haggling with antique dealers for frames, they often offered to get rid of the hair.
“She was like, ‘No, no, keep that in there,'” Evans said.
Her grandmother then hands them her business card and tells them to be on the lookout. Soon dealers across the country were calling.
“If he had hair, she got it,” said Evans, who sometimes accompanied her grandmother as she searched for new additions.
The collection has grown to include a wreath containing hair from every woman in the League of Women Voters of Vermont in 1865. A pair of crescent-shaped wreaths contain locks of hair from two sisters whose heads were shaved upon entering the convent. Some pieces even feature taxidermy.
Frames filled the walls of her home and the beauty school she ran with her husband. I pushed them under beds and into closets. Eventually, the couple took over this building – a former car dealership – located between a fast food restaurant and a car wash.
Celebrities caught wind of the cuteness. Actress and comedian Phyllis Diller donated a hair wreath that had been in her family for generations. TV actor Mike Rowe filmed an episode of “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” here. There may also be some threads from Osborn inside. When he came to visit, Cohoon cut the lock, although Evans had yet to find it.
Evans said her grandmother has not kept quiet about what she has spent over the years, but she expects the value of the art to reach $1 million.
As Genevieve Kinney, president of the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, walked through the collection, she looked eagerly at the jewelry commemorating the dead, including a small brooch containing the locks of a 7-year-old girl who died in 1811.
“I always felt it was important to educate people about death,” said Kenny, who is also a licensed mortician. “Our society does such an injustice in making people understand what true emotions feel like when death occurs.”
Evans herself is experiencing a mix of emotions as she slowly reclaims her grandmother’s legacy.
“I want people to see all of this because that’s what she wanted,” Evans said. “But when this is empty it will break my heart a little.”