Part 2: Victorian Mourning Fashions and Cities of the Dead
A Dismal Trade
Mourning warehouses were part of the general commercialization of death that consisted of selling people things they did not really need, but thought they were obliged to buy, to keep up appearances. Making use of the telegraph and railways, mourning houses such as Jay’s in London could provide premade clothing within 48 hours. A single dress, as illustrated in the 1865 mail order catalog from Jay’s, cost £12 or approximately $36 USD. For comparison, the average U.S. factory worker often earned less than $100 USD per year.
"Such places were the purview of the rich who could afford a fantasy of consumerism. Putting aside those massive curtains which drape the doorway, we wander into another department, and here we see a wonderful assemblage of caps, which seem to range in density from the frosted spider-web to the petrified “trifle”. We observed one widow’s cap which was a marvel; this wonder was under a glass-case; for it was as light in texture as thistle-down, with long streamers like fairies’ wings." (Henry Mahew, The Shops and Companies of London, 1865)
In the United States, Philadelphia’s Besson & Son became the official mourning clothier to the well-heeled. Records show that Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant procured her mourning attire from them. In Oakland stores such as Taft & Pennoyer, The Lace House, and Miss F. M. Reed, milliner, provided similar services albeit at much lower prices.
The dictates of fashion meant that mourning attire dated quickly. A burgeoning second hand trade developed and allowed women of lesser means to follow the customs and expectations of the times.
(Image: Advertisement for Jay's, Illustrated London News, 1888.)
The Fabric of Death
Do you know the connection between bombazeen, crape and lawn? Rule-loving Victorian women knew that these were the proper fabrics for mourning clothes.
Bombazeen (or bombazine) was a flat black cloth made of wool and cotton noted for its non-reflective or dead appearance. Charles Dickens described it in Danby and Son where Mrs. Pipchin wears “black bombazeen of such a lusterless, deep, dead somber shade that gas itself couldn’t light her up after dark and her presence was a quencher to any number of candles.”
Crape (always spelled with an “a” to distinguish its use in mourning) was a lightweight cloth made of gummed tightly twisted and highly volatile dyed silk threads. By 1880 it was known that a widow’s veil that covered the entire person and was made of crape was hazardous to a woman’s health. Catarrh (bronchitis) and blindness have been linked to the dyes used in the fabric. However, as Harper’s Bazaar noted in April 1886, “It is a thousand pities that fashion dictates the crape veil, but so it is.”
Lawn (named for the town of Laon in France) was a sheer, plain-weave cotton. Etiquette demanded that it be used for nine-inch long removable weepers cuffs that could be used to wipe the nose during crying fits.
(Image: Mrs. Howes in deep morning. Museum of the City of New York.)
The Long Goodbye
Victorians loved rules and judged others by how well they knew and followed social codes. Nowhere was this phenomenon more apparent than in the rules about clothing to be worn by a woman in mourning.
Mourning for a widow was the most extreme. Black clothing was not just black for the first six months, but flat black. Everyone knew that shiny black could only be worn for months 7 through 18 of the mandatory two and a half years of grief.
Then there was mourning for everyone else. Parents, siblings and children also needed to be mourned according to rules – at least by women. Widowers were only required to mourn for six months for their wives.
(Image: 19th Century Image of a woman dressed in mourning attire beside a woman in standard day dress.)
The Cost of Fashionable Mourning
For the wealthy woman not one or two but three or four sets of mourning clothing were required. At first a woman’s costume would be black from head to toe and in some cases even her undergarments were included.
If she lifts her skirts from the mud, she must show by her frilled black silk petticoat and plain black stockings her grief has penetrated to her innermost sanctuaries. (Mrs. D. Douglas, The Gentlewoman’s Book of Dress c. 1890.)
Her black parasol, bonnet and gloves completed the perfect picture of gloom. A year and a day later, another wardrobe would be needed for Second Mourning, followed by yet more apparel for Ordinary Mourning, and Half-Mourning.
While wealthy widows could afford to shop at upscale Mourning Warehouses, lower class women tended to have far fewer options. Whereas a wealthy woman might have had a new gown for every formal mourning event and would purchase new wardrobe pieces as they moved between mourning periods, a poorer woman may have worn the same black dress throughout. Her dress would have been a simple black cotton or wool. She may have pinned a simple black crape veil to her hair, though it would not be as elegant as those worn by women in the upper class. She likely would have forgone the parasols, jet jewelry, and black lace shawls.
Lower class women were expected to follow mourning protocols as much as their individual circumstances would permit. It was not uncommon, however, for a woman to shorten her mourning period and enter into marriage in order to ensure she and her family were cared for, or to enter the workforce to provide an income to make up for the loss of her husband's wages. For many, the cost of following mourning protocols was far too high.
Memento Mori
A baby’s lock of hair and a child’s first shoes are tokens that mothers save. Brides save blossoms from a wedding bouquet. Why not also save a token of death? The Victorians perfected the art of Memento Mori (a Latin phrase for "reminders of death") and created stunningly beautiful art. This exhibit includes personal tokens of hair art, jewelry, and other adornments for mourning attire.
A widow’s best friend was “mourning jewelry” and the shining star of mourning fashion was Whitby jet. Gold or silver brightened up her person and after first mourning she could wear her slender gold watch chain but the brilliance of Whitby jet literally shone. Whitby, England is one of the most perfect deposits of ancient opaque volcanic glass in the world. In the 1870s Whitby employed 200 miners and 1,500 artisans carving beads, buttons and jewelry. French glass beads and buttons, and jewelry items made in moldable “vulcanite” and “gutta-percha” or carved from Bog Oak, were more affordable but pale imitations of Whitby’s products.
Victorians saved hair in a “receiver” and also cut hair from the head to make woven, wearable tokens used by lovers and mourners—it’s sometimes hard to tell a hair work love brooch from a mourning one, but if it’s engraved “From EB To JC” it is likely not for mourning. From brooches to watch chains to earring and necklace sets and wall art, hair work is one of the more intriguing fads of 19th century fashion.
Learn More About Victorian Hairwork
Are you interested in learning more about the 19th century custom of keeping locks of hair as mementos? Watch this presentation by Sarah Gold McBride, Lecturer in the History department at UC Berkeley. This presentation was originally given on November 5, 2020 for Camron-Stanford House.
(All content of this video copyright of Sarah Gold McBride.)
Object Highlight
Look closely and you might find something surprising! This framed art piece was made using a special material-- human hair.
Hair work was quite popular in the 19th century, and some artists were well known in Europe and the United States for their talent in working with human hair. Hair would often be collected from loved ones and used to create specialized pieces such as jewelry and art pieces just like this one.
For a loved one who had passed, having locks of hair may have served as a comfort, and a way to keep a piece of them near. In this piece, we see an older woman standing in prayer near a memorial structure.
(Image: Framed hairwork scene. Courtesy of Maggie Adams).
The Myth of the Tear Catcher
For many years now, people have clung to the idea that small glass vials like this one (often called lachrymatory vials) were used by Victorian era ladies to catch their tears, and preserve them as a tribute to their lost loved ones. It has been said that these vials also measured grieving time, and that once the tears had evaporated the mourning period could end.
While this is a romantic (and somewhat spooky) story, it is likely not true. While the 19th century was full of fascinating mourning rituals, tear vials were likely not one of them. In fact, in most cases, vials like this were used for perfume.
Interestingly, an Oxford professor answers a question on the topic in an 1850 issue of Notes and Queries, a publication dedicated to the study of antiquarian culture. Where someone asks about lachrymatory bottles in the ancient world, he writes,
"it seems generally agreed that their proper use was to contain perfumes, scents, and unguents as sweet odours to rest with the body" (Ed. S. Jackson)
And as it was then, so it is now. Proof of these vials being used for anything other than perfume remains speculative, their mythic histories tied only to poetry in most cases.
Cities of the Dead
Before 1831, the United States had no public non-denominational cemeteries. Burials took place in church yards or on private property. With the construction of Mt. Auburn Cemetery outside of Cambridge, Massachusetts, that began to change. Large rural cemeteries were built on the outskirts of cities. At a time when there were few public parks, art museums or botanical gardens in American cities, there were suddenly large pieces of ground filled with benches, pathways, gardens and fountains creating a pastoral place for families to gather and mourn their loved ones.
Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland was part of this cultural trend. It was designed in 1863 by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the architect of Central Park in New York. Olmstead favored a Transcendentalist fusion of linear and curved elements that was intended to express a harmony between man and nature, life and death.
Cemeteries like Mountain View also included monuments to the famous and wealthy. Lavish family mausoleums were built to permanently memorialize an individual or family and with the construction of these structures, cemeteries truly became cities of the dead.
(Image: Entrance to Ghirardelli Family tomb at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California. Photograph by Reenie Raschke.)
Stories in Stone
If you have studied art history, you might know that paintings often have hidden meanings or symbols, many of which modern viewers may find difficult to decipher. The same is true of the iconography of the cemetery. A tombstone might tell the visitor, among other things, the age, occupation, or affiliation of the deceased. For examples of such iconography see the images and captions below.
(Image: Inside the tomb of David Hewes at Mountain View Cemetery. Hewes was a former resident of the Camron-Stanford House. Image via Oakland Wiki.)
