These four pompous members of the English judiciary are exactly the sort who gave rise to the term “bigwig.” Indifferent to the case before them, their characters are revealed by two mottoes barely visible in the wall emblem above them: “semper eadem” (“Always the same”) and the fragmentary “mal y pense” (“Think evil of it”). Thomas Jefferson suggested English judges looked “like mice peeping out of oakum” (the loose fiber obtained by pulling apart old ropes). English judges and barristers continue to wear these heavy and expensive wigs today, although there has been talk of discontinuing the practice.

From the exhibition: Hair: Untangling a Social History (January 24 – June 6, 2004)