Archaeologists Discover Hair Dye Bottles Used By Civil War Soldiers Posing For Portraits
By Marco Margaritoff
Published December 9, 2019
Updated December 11, 2019
Even soldiers fighting in the deadliest conflict in U.S. history had superficial urges in mind when it was time to take their portraits.
Matthew Brady/U.S. National Archives and Records AdministrationPhotos of Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard have shown his hair to have grayed within one year of the war. Stress has been the dominant theory on why, though some now argue he merely ran out of hair dye.
Vanity is a timeless sin that even fear of death can’t eradicate. Even as the Civil War pitted a divided nation into bloody battle from 1861 to 1865, soldiers were concerned with their looks. According to The Lexington Herald-Leader, excavations at Camp Nelson in Kentucky found the hair dye bottles to prove it.
The archaeological discovery at the historical former Union outpost are only a small part of artifacts unearthed at the site in 2015. Researchers also found a 150-year-old photography studio — the first ever discovered at a Civil War base, according to The Smithsonian.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/hair-dye-civil-war
