Elizabeth L. Block is an art historian and a Senior Editor in the Publications and Editorial Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This interview is based on her new book, Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing (MIT Press, 2024).
JF: What led you to write Beyond Vanity?
EB: Hair was my first passion topic and the subject of my dissertation for my PhD. My area of focus in art history was American paintings of the late 19th century, especially images of women.
I was looking at portraits of women by painters such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Cecilia Beaux, and Eastman Johnson and was much more drawn to the representation of the women’s hairstyles and clothing than to the biographies or techniques of the painters. That interest led to writing my dissertation on the representation of women’s hairstyles in American painting of the 19th century, and to the broader subject of the material culture of hairdressing in Beyond Vanity.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument Beyond Vanity?
EB: Beyond Vanity restores women’s hair as a cultural site of meaning in the early United States by focusing on the places and spaces in which the industry operated. The book argues that the importance of hair has been overlooked due to its ephemerality as well as its misguided association with frivolity and triviality.
JF: Why do we need to read Beyond Vanity?
EB: I think anything that women spend time on is worth studying deeply. The fact that the presentation of hair can be massively political is a sign that it needs to be deeply studied–and it hasn’t yet.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
EB: I first started engaging with American history in elementary school during a special program at textile mills in Massachusetts near my hometown. It sounds unbelievable, but I probably became a historian during those early days. I went on to become an English major in undergraduate studies at the George Washington University, then a Master’s degree in American Studies at Columbia University, and a PhD in art history at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
JF: What is your next project?
EB: I am working with American ephemera produced by and for children that I engaged with during fellowships at the Winterthur Museum and Library and at the American Antiquarian Society. Stay tuned!
JF: Thanks, Elizabeth!