Modern Style

TANISHA:

My passion for hair started with me playing in my doll baby’s hair.  I was really big on just learning certain hairstyles that I saw on television. And I would try it on my doll baby’s hair.

My name is Tanisha Palmer and I’m a community activist and mother of two children

 So as I got into my teenage years, I began to practice doing hair on my two girlfriends’ hair.  I wasn’t really good at it. One of my favorite hairstyles was the finger waves. It’s a technique that it takes time. It takes a lot of practice to do. It requires two combs. And you got to take it in a certain way. You got to get the hair into like a snake kind of like a pattern.

Now, back in the day, the way that people wore hairs was, it was a kind of way of like, financial stature. Like if you wore braids it showed you was at an elite level.  So in our area, that wave hairstyle it was a fashionable hairstyle, but it was also a hairstyle that was like a little expensive   ​ And I got so good with it that I’m able now today, I could use anything. I can use a pen. I could use my finger.

But it took me a very long time to be able to master this hairstyle.

AMY: You would ask me, can you do my hair? And I would let you and you would do your thing. And you know, you would burn me. // I’m Amy Fitzgerald, Tanisha Palmer’s, longest friend? Lifelong Friend. That’s what we are.

 I remember I would always use an excessive amount of hair gel.  Of anything actually that I used when I started

AMY: What was the grease you used to be using?
TANISHA: It was blue magic hair grease.

My friends would walk around with like, gaps in their hair. Burn marks from the grease. I always say it’s the heat. I always say, Oh, it’s not me. It’s, it’s, It’s the heat, it’s the grease and it’s melting down, it’s hitting your hair.

AMY: but you know, I rocked it. You were practicing, you were bettering yourself. You were perfecting your craft. I might have been looking crazy for a little bit. We might have washed it out and tried again. I know you wouldn’t have me going nowhere looking crazy

 It’s something about hair too. It’s just like it builds up a relationship and bond.

AMY:  I didn’t mind. You were my best friend, so I didn’t care.

THEME MUSIC IN

JAMIE: You’re listening to Philadelphia Revealed.

I’m your host, Jamie J, executive director of First Person Arts, a nonprofit organization that believes everyone has a story to tell.

Across 10 episodes you’re going to get a tour of the Atwater Kent collection, sometimes called Philadelphia’s attic.

It’s a collection that’s grown over the decades, acquiring Philly’s material culture from individuals, families, institutions and shuttered businesses. And sometimes literally from the trash.

In every episode of this podcast, you’ll learn about an object in the Atwater Kent collection and hear a story inspired by it from a storyteller working with First Person Arts. We think every Philadelphian will be able to see themselves in this collection, and that learning about Philadelphia’s many histories can help us understand its present — and future.

This is episode four: Modern Style. With storyteller Tanisha Palmer.

Tanisha is a community wellness specialist and founder of In the Eyes of Grieving Mothers. She works in marginalized communities, providing support to help individuals navigate bereavement and substance abuse disorders.

Tanisha was inspired by a tortoise shell hair comb from 1876. It’s a beautiful decorative hair piece, with an intricate design that honors the Centennial exhibition, aka the United States’ 100th birthday party. It made Tanisha think about her hair journey.

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AMY: What were we putting in our hair back then? We were doing french rolls and waves and crunchies. We kind of changed with the trends. whatever was nice at the time.

My friend Amy, she would always let me press her hair out and use curling wax.

AMY: It was hot, but she was pressing it out real good.

I was doing their hair about like once or twice a week. And they would try to maintain it by using hair scarves, or sleeping in a certain way, you know, that would probably cause cranks in a neck, but just to make sure that their hair, didn’t get messed up.

For me, you know, being raised, off of county assistance. We really didn’t have, , , the financial funds for us to be able to afford the hairstyles that was out back then. So that was another great reward for us as well. Me being able to, learn the styles and perfect it

Once I got to high school, I took a cosmetology course. Which was so helpful for me.

But unfortunately, I had got pregnant with my first child. So, I had to drop out of school,

After that, what I did was I became a certified nurse assistant. I moved to Philadelphia and started my career. And I found another passion for that, you know, being able to be there for people on their sickbed and being able to take and take care of them, not just physically, but also help them and build their confidence while they was going through, their challenging times

Most of my patients were senior citizens or elderly people. So, I would do their hair for them on days that I would come in and they would be appreciative of it. They would come out more, open the front door. I want to sit out front today, you know, want to be seen, acknowledged

Appearance is very important to anyone. I know even on my down days, if I go and I, Put my hair up and fix myself up, even if I don’t even, if it, if the clothes not matching, if the hair is done, as we say, sleet, but if the hair is done, it makes me feel really confident about myself and that’s what, you know, really highlighted my interest with the comb, the centennial comb,

You can get your hair done, you can get a style in your hair, but it’s like it adds on a piece that complements it. And that’s what the Centennial comb does. It brings a highlight to something that’s already beautiful

I mean, it’s like, it’s not, it’s not modern, but I would definitely, I would, I would wear it today.

MUSIC

STACEY:  It’s a wonderful piece of tortoise shell. So it’s got a great tortoise shell color, It’s fairly large, for someone who had a full head of hair

That’s Stacey Swigart, the director of the Atwater Kent collection.

STACEY: Across the top of it is spelled out in capital letters Centennial // So it was definitely made and produced for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition

STACEY: The centennial was the hundredth anniversary of the United States of America. // So the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. So in 1876, they wanted to have a grand old party. And why not have it in Philadelphia?

The world’s fair was a new concept at the time. They were big, elaborate festivals where countries and companies could show off the fruits of the industrial revolution, modernity, and progress. There were exhibitions of new inventions, arts, and fashions.

In 1876, its hundredth birthday, the US also wanted to stake its claim as a world industrial power.

Events that celebrate any history — but maybe especially the founding of the United States — are always interesting for what they leave out. This first World’s Fair in the US was happening just 10 years after the end of the Civil War.

STACEY SWIGART: The wounds were still really fresh in 1876, // People from both the North and the South would be coming to this World’s Fair. // You had veterans coming to this fair and you didn’t really want to address it.

Still, the party pressed on. The fair would last for months, and it required a massive construction project to pull off. Three thousand workers built the main building. It all took place in Fairmount Park.

STACEY: There were over 260 buildings. And it was kind of a city unto itself. // Only a couple were meant to be permanent structures after the fair, but everything else was temporary.

The center of the fair was Memorial Hall — still standing in Fairmount Park, now home to the Please Touch Museum. At the time, Philadelphia was known as the workshop of the world because of its importance in manufacturing and industry. So the Centennial highlighted new inventions of all kinds

STACEY: So there was a main exhibition hall that kind of had everything. // There was an agricultural hall, so anything with farming there. // Also the art gallery, which was Memorial Hall. // Sculpture, photography, painting, watercolor. // And then there was machinery hall // there were train cars, locomotives inside the building

The fair was filled with marvels. Part of the Statue of Liberty — the hand holding the torch — was on display

STACEY: People could for Five or ten cents, // go up inside and you could stand on the torch. So there’s some great photographs of people looking on the torch and it would have been a great visual tower that you could climb up and then see the grounds of the fair.
//
Other inventions like root beer was introduced there through Charles Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist who invented root beer as a foil against alcohol. So not beer, but root beer, um, healthful drink.
//
The banana was introduced at the World’s Fair. So people had never experienced bananas before, and it was sold for a few cents, wrapped in kind of like a tinfoil

The fair was also filled with all kinds of new styles, new fashions, new products. Hair care products, fabric swatches, men and women’s underwear. It was also the era of the snake oil salesman, so there were all kinds of tonics and potions and the latest and greatest dubious cures of the time. It would have been a full on sensory experience.

STACEY: Visual cacophony of so many things and so many textures and colors and things to look at and also touch and experience I would imagine it would be a little overwhelming just because there was so much to look at.

Women did exhibit over 750 displays of industrial and fine arts, woven goods, scientific achievements, literature, and inventions… but it was restricted to a “Women’s Pavilion.” There was even a mechanical wheel, operated by a woman wearing pants.

But most women, Stacey thinks, were coming dressed in their finest, probably fairly impractical clothing

STACEY: It would not have been casual. You would have gone and you would have been dressed, fairly well. // because again, it’s a place that you want to see and be seen. I think the norm would have been, you need to be dressed up and looking quite lovely.

This is, you know, mid- ish, um, 19th century, and so gowns were kind of big. I would imagine, it’s May to November, it was probably hot a lot of the time. There were so many layers on women, I would imagine it would have been uncomfortable walking around the fairgrounds because it was so extensive.

A lot of women had fairly long hair, but they would. pin it up and have these high, high styles with lots of curls and things that drop down and lots of hair ornaments, hair ornaments were quite popular. So you may or may not be wearing a hat. Hats were still popular, but, um, I think, um, yeah, there was combs and pins and jewelry that you could put into your hair. And so some of those hairstyles would have been fairly massive.

Say you were walking the grounds in your elaborate outfit, and your hair fell out of place, or you tore the hem of your dress.

STACEY: You could go to the department of public comfort building // and have somebody sew it up. So I would imagine that there was probably somebody on site that if you had an issue and your hair came down out of its whatever, you had it tied up or pinned up, somebody would probably be there to help you out.

Over 10 million people visited Fairmount Park from May 10 to November 10 1876.

People of all races and classes, men and women. But the fair was segregated. Women and black people were only admitted on certain days. Native Americans were brought to the fair – to be exhibited. The workers who constructed the main building couldn’t visit when it operated, because it was closed on Sundays — their only day off.

Frederick Douglass was invited to sit on the dias on opening day… but not to speak. And he was almost denied entrance by police who couldn’t believe that a black man would be sitting on stage with the president.

So as much as the centennial was imagined as a place to put the country’s best foot forward, it was no utopia.

STACEY: So there was all these little under, pinnings of sort of differences and challenges that nobody really wanted to talk about.

MUSIC

In November the fair came to a close… but attendees could take a piece home with them.

STACEY SWIGART: I’ll call it swag. You know, you go and you get your little stress ball or somebody gives you the candy with the logo of the company on it. // drinking cups, little medallions, they had puzzle blocks, toys // like cup and ball with logos and pictures and images of the different buildings. So the 5 main buildings at the fair were very common images that you could find on a lot of these souvenirs.

That’s where the comb came from, in the Atwater Kent collection, the one that inspired Tanisha. It’s a hair ornament and a souvenir. It reads 1776 – 1876, Centennial.

MUSIC

The Centennial was, by most accounts, a success. It didn’t make a ton of money, but it made a splash. Philadelphia has tried to replicate that celebration… with less success. In 1926, there was a sesquicentennial — the 150th anniversary of the founding.

STACEY SWIGART: And it was kind of a bust. They spent a lot of money and nobody really came.

1976 was the bicentennial, the 200th anniversary…. Also a bit of a flop — though it did lead to the creation of a few more Philadelphia institutions – including the African American Museum and the Mummers Museum.

The Atwater Kent collection has souvenirs from all of these celebrations.

The next big anniversary is coming up in 2026 — the 250th anniversary, aka the semi quincentennial. And once again, Philadelphia will throw a big party… one that tries to honor where we’ve been…. And make sense of where we’re going.

MUSIC

TANISHA: So the thing that was interesting to me was the time. That, the Centennial took place, around the Civil War

I could kind of relate to that today because even with, you know, a lot of things that’s going on economically, um, people having their challenges, everybody wants to outlet, you know, everybody wants a place where they could come wind down, enjoy, dress up, not kind of forget about, you know, You know, what’s going on in the, what’s going on in the world.

But just have a place to be able to have, um, to be able to socialize.

I would have loved to, I would have loved to attend the event.

MUSIC

 So in 2016,, I decided to go back and get my high school diploma.

 I attended a program at Temple University. for,, returning adults. during that time , I had challenges. I had a lot of challenges because I haven’t been in school. I had dropped out in 2000 so in 2016, when I went back I would sit back with my professor and I would spend time with him so I could retain the information that was being taught.

The timeframe, it was a two year program. However, I was so determined and I was so eager to learn,  that  I completed in a matter of six months

 and I was so excited. So once I got my GED, I immediately went to hair school

Tanisha graduated quickly with her GED and enrolled at the Beauty Institute on Roosevelt Boulevard. She was thrilled to be back learning about hair.

Then she got a message from her GED teacher — there was a ceremony for graduates and he really wanted Tanisha to attend.

TANISHA: He was so adamant, like, we really want you to come. We really want you to come.

 And I was  sharing with my teacher at the beauty school that, um, you know, like, I didn’t really think it was necessary to go because I already completed it and I’m in hair school, but they were like, no, like, Tanisha, you know, like you earned it, like, we’re going to get you prepared and we’re going to, you know, you should go, you know, you should go

 They did my hair for me. I had a press and curl, um, and I had a little pendant actually. So I had a press and curl hairstyle and it was pinned up like with some of the, um, like the centennial piece. With the hair comb with rhinestones on there. it was like three combs to hold up the massive hair that I had.

In hair school, whenever you’re getting your hair done, it’s not turned to the mirror.

So you can’t see yourself, right? So it’s just like a makeover. Like, so when I turned around and I saw myself, I was like, Oh my, I immediately, I started crying and it was like, no, no, no, Tanisha, you’re going to mess your makeup up. That was a great experience in my life.

 I want to say it was emotional and it was, I was excited. Because they really took their time out. I mean, my teacher Kayla, she came over, she did my hair.

So it was kind of like I was just getting poured back into from all the work that I had done, um, for everyone. It was just like, I was just getting poured back into, and then once I turned around and I saw myself and the makeup and, and you know, everything, I was just like, Wow, I just, I felt like a queen. I did. I felt very, like, beautiful,

Tanisha attended the ceremony — where she was surprised to learn that she was being given a special honor, for completing the course so quickly and with such determination

TANISHA: I got this plaque, the citation of Philadelphia, and it was, um, presented to me by, um, Cherelle Parker. At the time she was a city council member. And, it just highlighted, you know, my accomplishments and my dedication.

 To be awarded, um, this citation in front of. It was like hundreds of people there it was just, I don’t know, it was a memorable moment.