Summary

Hair brush purchased in Melbourne by Ernesto Angerame around 1949 for his barber shop at 330 Lygon Street, Carlton. Some of his tools and equipment were purchased from other Italian barbers closing down their businesses.

Ernesto Angerame was born in 1920 in Viggiano, in the region of Basilicata, Italy. He migrated reluctantly to Melbourne in 1937, having replaced his brother who had changed his mind. He learned the barber trade during his sea voyage and completed his apprenticeship upon arrival. In 1942, Ernesto was conscripted as an enemy alien into the Civilian Army Corps and released in 1945. In 1949 he opened his own barber's shop in Lygon Street Carlton (known as the Sportsmen's Saloon from the early 1950s) which he ran until he retired in 1984. He cut the hair of numerous local and visiting sportsmen, and was official barber to the Carlton Football Club. His shop also sold tobacconist and hair care products and traditional Italian playing cards.

Physical Description

Spoon-shaped brown wooden hairbrush with long handle, and rubber spikes attached through holes in cushion. Lettering impressed into handle.

Significance

The Angerame Italian Barber collection offers valuable insights into the working life of an Italian migrant small business owner from the 1950s in Carlton - a traditional heart of Italian culture in Melbourne. The collection enables the exploration of particularly gendered practices of grooming and the associated male socialising and cultural exchanges, as well as the migrant processes of working and settling into a particular cultural, as well as in this case, the broader community.

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