The largest item in the photograph is a bundle of dried flax. One of the earliest steps to preparing flax to be spun into thread, was "pulling" the flax through the teeth of a "hetchel." Once this was done, the "hetcheled flax" resembled human hair (see upper right section of the photograph).

This display is located at the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford, CT where I took this photograph in 2005.

See Glossary: Flax.