The "Victorian Mourning" exhibit, on display this month at The Hearthside House in Lincoln, Rhode Island, explores the unique traditions surrounding mourning during the Victorian era.
Americans took their cues from Queen Victoria, making mourning one of America's first big businesses. "Mourning clothes for ladies were really the first ready-made, off-the-rack clothes that you could buy,"
The exhibit also examines the significance that flowers and food played in Victorian-era funerals, as well as many of the actions following death that were customary, such as having a small funeral tea or dinner in the home of the family.For more on this event and dates of the exhibit, go to:
http://www.hearthsidehouse.org/news/2012.victorianmourning.html
5 comments:
If you recall, I wrote a posting on Victorian mourning not too long ago:
http://passionforthepast.blogspot.com/2011/07/19th-centurt-mourning-practices-revised.html
I like the display of mourning jewelry. And the clothing. I wonder why they covered the mirror with black fabric. Was it a superstition thing?
Gina, yes it was a superstitious thing. One of the number of reasons was the fear of seeing the dead beckoning the living to join them. Another was seeing who would be the next to die. They were a superstitious people, those Victorians.
Also, the covering of the mirrors was the superstition that the spirit of the deceased would become trapped in the mirror or that a mourner seeing his or her reflection, would be the next to die.
For more mourning rituals in 19th century America is "Widow's Weeds and Weeping Veils by Bernadette Loeffel-Atkins
Great photos. I love tea and had tea parties with my grandma growing up.
I do not know much about Rhode Island history.
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