7 SUTHERLAND SISTERS

check this out..

top....

14" x 10". a bit faded, but a really interesting piece.

reminds me of Cousin It a bit.[]

The father toured the sisters all around the country showing off their hair. he claimed his hair product made it grow. The grew up infamously and were surround by scandal including play boy husbands spending their fortune and other misfortunes...

Haven't dug one of the bottles in a long time now...

Strange Stories of Sutherland Sisters[/align]
[/align][/align]Where the highway swings north of Lockport, N.Y., only charred timbers now mark the site of a strange castle of the Nineties. The inquiring tourist hears:[/align]"That was the home of the Seven Sutherland Sisters. Last one, Grace, died a little while back."[/align]Younger travelers are aware only of an agreeably alliterative name. Oldsters may recall with a start something of the fantastic.[/align]Work did not stop on the little farm in 1870 when Fletcher Sutherland (he claimed descent from the English duke) went into town to discuss politics. A whole chorus of daughters - Sarah, Isabella, Naomi, Mary. Grace, Dora and Victoria, could dance from task to task about the Sutherland log cabin.[/align]It was a group fitted to halt any observer. When the sisters bushel themselves with farm chores, their amazing tresses were caught up in great braids.[/align]If it was let down for washing or brushing, it literally trailed on the ground behind them in rippling, shining trains.[/align]It was a breath-taking example of Nature's lavishness concentrated in a single family. Naomi could wrap herself in her hair like the most discreet Godiva-it made a massive cloak[/align]Victoria's hair, from brow to tip was a full seven feet. In the expression of the day, all of the others were similarity blessed with crowning glories.[/align]No log cabin be the bushel to hide such a light for long.[/align]Vaudeville and circus magnates begged the sisters to sign contracts. There were hurried, whispered conferences. Then the decision-yes, they would leave their log cabin and display their lush locks to the world if they could stay together.[/align]That was what the agents wanted, anyway. The Seven Sutherland Sisters sallied forth.[/align]Broadway gaped and so did Main street. When these sisters, one after the other, trailed across the gas-lit stage and swung about to shake out the billowing hair, there was a concerted gasp. To enlarge the act, they learned to play musical instruments and sing.[/align]Money was already rolling in from personal appearances when a truly magnificent idea was hit upon. Why not a hair tonic named after and recommended by the Seven Sutherland Sisters?[/align]Practically every woman who had ever seen them wanted hair like that (The bob hadn't been thought of.) It did. A company was formed and the business prospered at once, netting $90,000 the first year. So great was the demand for the "miracle tonic" that within a few years their earnings had reached the $1,000,000 mark. [/align]Throughout the 1880s, the sisters continued to make their personal appearances, and gather a golden harvest. Despite their stage appearances, they appeared to be quite shy, remaining aloof from other performers and sufficient unto themselves.[/align]In 1893 they built a tremendous home near the spot where their log cabin once stood. It was in the rococo style of the period with turrets, ornamented verandas and every florid touch money could buy.[/align]Another $30,000 was spent for a vast mausoleum on the family burial plot in Glenwood cemetery.[/align]

Really a cool piece and great story!!JAMIE

From.

Hey John,

Tremendous ephemera, sir.

The Sutherland Sisters had quite the exploited star life in the waning days of the second to last century.

"Grave Robbery

The true story of Niagara’s Seven Sutherland Sisters is actually stranger than fiction. This family of siblings made a business out of their floor-length hair and their musical talents. Even in death, the story is bizarre. On March 12, 1898, the Union-Sun printed a story about an attempted grave robbing from a family mausoleum in Glenwood Cemetery. The building had been erected in 1896 by one of the sisters, Isabella Sutherland Castlemaine, as the final resting place for her beloved husband, Frederick.

According to the published reports, the ghouls drove a horse and wagon into the cemetery at night and attempted to gain entry into the mausoleum. The renegades did accomplish removal of the heavy bronze gate on the front of the building but were stymied in their attempt to blast through the door by placing gunpowder in the keyhole. The explosion failed in its mission to gain the men admittance, so their next attempt was to break a small window and crawl through. The following morning, the cemetery caretaker noticed the missing gate and forced entry. Isabella Sutherland was summoned to the cemetery and she opened the mausoleum door with a foot-long key, and to everyone’s surprise, the massive door swung open. The entry party, including a Union-Sun reporter determined that the purpose of the forced entry was an apparent attempt at body snatching. It was assumed that Isabella’s share of the hair tonic fortune led the bandits to believe they could obtain a large ransom for her husband’s body. There had been rumors that the body was bedecked with diamonds and other jewels, but the men did not attempt to remove the glass cover of the inner metal coffin, which confirmed the authorities’ suspicions that the men were only after the body. The two-foot window was too small to remove the casket from the building, so the men left the cemetery empty handed.

Late the police made every effort to trace the desecrators, but to no avail. The site of the crime actually became a “must-see†in Glenwood for thousands of curious on-lookers and tourists. Heavy metal bars were added to the window opening to prevent any repeat attempt to disrupt the dead. In 1914, Isabella joined Frederick in death, and was laid beside her husband.

Douglas Farley, Director
Erie Canal Discover Center
24 Church St.
Lockport NY 14094" From.