History of Horsehair Art

By Marjan Polek

     The history of the horsehair arts is something I would like to know more about. It seems there is very little information about where or when horsehair artists appeared in America. Hopefully in the future I can write this page with more information. But for right now I'll tell you what the widest held beliefs are.

     It is believed that working with horsehair originated in Spain around the 8th century. The Spaniards are then believed to have introduced the art to America where it evolved over many years.

     We have very little information about any pieces from this early period and so there is still some debate about the origin of working with horsehair.

     There are some people who believe that horsehair hitching is a truly American art form and that the cowboy should be given credit for creating it.

     You can't talk about the history of horsehair without mentioning the connection to territorial prisons. Because hitching horsehair is a very time consuming art, it was adopted by prisoners who had the time to be able to work on long projects.

     We have information about prisoners making hitched horsehair items dating back to the mid 1800's. Most of the teaching of horsehair hitching during this time period was from one prisoner to another. The prisons most commonly associated with the horsehair arts where located in Deer Lodge, Montana; Yuma, Arizona; Rawlins, Wyoming; and Walla Walla, Washington.

     Although there was a strong connection in the past between hitchers and prisoners, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. At the present time there are more and more people learning how to hitch from books or from other hitchers that do not have any connection with prisons.

     To learn more about the history of horsehair art I'm trying to locate as many old pieces as I can that can be documented.

     If you have pieces like this and would like to participate in research that can help to establish guidelines in recognizing where certain pieces were made and in what time period, please go to the research page of my web site.

E-mail Horsehair@aol.com
Marjan Polek
1042 Willow Creek Rd. A101-516
Prescott, Arizona 86301

		The history of the horsehair arts is something I would like to know more about. It seems there is very little information about where or when horsehair artists appeared in America. Hopefully in the future I can write this page with more information. But for right now I'll tell you what the widest held beliefs are. It is believed that working with horsehair originated in Spain around the 8th century. The Spaniards are then believed to have introduced the art to America where it evolved over many years. We have very little information about any pieces from this early period and so there is still some debate about the origin of working with horsehair. There are some people who believe that horsehair hitching is a truly American art form and that the cowboy should be given credit for creating it. You can't talk about the history of horsehair without mentioning the connection to territorial prisons. Because hitching horsehair is a very time consuming art, it was adopted by prisoners who had the time to be able to work on long projects. We have information about prisoners making hitched horsehair items dating back to the mid 1800's. Most of the teaching of horsehair hitching during this time period was from one prisoner to another. The prisons most commonly associated with the horsehair arts where located in Deer Lodge, Montana; Yuma, Arizona; Rawlins, Wyoming; and Walla Walla, Washington. Although there was a strong connection in the past between hitchers and prisoners, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. At the present time there are more and more people learning how to hitch from books or from other hitchers that do not have any connection with prisons. To learn more about the history of horsehair art I'm trying to locate as many old pieces as I can that can be documented. If you have pieces like this and would like to participate in research that can help to establish guidelines in recognizing where certain pieces were made and in what time period, please go to the research page of my web site.