Behind the Veil: The Dark World of Victorian Mourning
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- Ohio writer Chris Woodyard, author of the popular Haunted Ohio series and the off-beat history of Victorian death and mourning, The Victorian Book of the Dead, will speak on “Behind the Veil: The Dark World of Victorian Mourning,” discussing Victorian mourning rituals such as wakes, post-mortem photography, and the wearing of mourning clothing, that might seem strange and morbid to our modern minds.
Chris Woodyard is an Ohio writer and historian. She started her work on Victorian mourning quite early in her career--wandering around local graveyards as a child and doing a presentation on American funeral directing in 6th grade. She received her BA degree with Honors in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from The Ohio State University, where her emphasis was on art history. She is the author of nine books on Ohio ghostlore, the Haunted Ohio series, as well as three volumes of historical ghost stories, and The Victorian Book of the Dead, a book on the popular and material culture of Victorian mourning and death. She blogs at The Victorian Book of the Dead and as Mrs Daffodil, writing on dress history and the ephemera of fashion.
Years and years ago I had the absolute joy of hearing Chris Woodyard speak in Weston Ohio public library. I was in awe that I got to see someone who wrote a book I had read. As soon as I heard this book existed, I just had to buy it and spent the next couple nights engrossed in a history I had never known.
Fascinating! It's interesting to see the remnants of Victorian funeral rites here in the UK. As a young widow I would have welcomed some form of recognised mourning attire to avoid having to refer to it time and time again. Thank you for a great talk on the subject :)
I do for sure want to bring back victorian mourning! Especially where you wash and dress the body at home and stay with them. I really hate how when a loved one dies you just call the funeral home and they come and pick up the body and you don't see the body again until the funeral and that's it. Most people dont even know you can wash and dress the body at home. Not to mention the fact that the funeral industry is pure evil overcharging people in terrible states of mind. You don't have to embalm the body. It's expensive and invasive and completely unnecessary. The embalmed body poisons everything around it as it decays. Embalming chemicals leak into the groundwater and find its way into our homes. Its wrong. Why are we doing death like this? I want a natural funeral and a natural burial. Which is completely legal and the right thing to do. Anything else is not only morally wrong, but so expensive it costs around 10k. Dont do it.
Very interesting, a wonderful lesson. Loved it.
love your subject-matter! Thank you,
Amazing work I am so facinated with death and this era. Thank you so much for sharing!!
I had a second cousin, unsure what she was, my father’s first cousin anyway. If she were alive today she would be 100, she told me a story of her uncle and aunt that had lost a baby and at the time she was a young child herself. She was at their home and she herself was dressed in black as was her aunt who was very upset as her bay had died. The next thing her uncle came up to the house on a horse and cart, picked up a little coffin, put it on the cart and drove off with it. Black creeped band on his hat and the whole episode was very sad. Her and her aunt watched through the window as it drove away. So my second cousin was unsure as she had never asked the questions back in those days, one would never assume, if women were not allowed at burials or most likely the baby had not been christened. I say not christened because as an aged woman she was telling me this story and said she could not find the baby’s grave. The little town where I was born and all the family members involved, where this took place has and always had a small area where the unchristened were buried. Terribly sad. She eventually went to the council and did find the baby had been buried there in a grave that was difficult to find, and she had it fixed up. Can one just imagine firstly that poor father having to take his baby to it’s grave and burying it by himself as seemingly that was what happened while the poor, poor mother had to watch this from a window being given a small child to keep her comfort in the form of my second cousin. Just dreadfully sad and horrid.
At some time and place of history women were not allowed to have anything to do with dead bodies before menopause because “it could harm her pregnancy!” No, I have no idea how it could affect your future fertility if you go to a funeral when you are ten years old 🤷♂️
Very helpful for the paper I am writing for my english comp class thank you! Very infromative!
Absolutely fascinating
What a great find!
Wish it had been included that the body of the perfectly preserved little San Francisco girl was destroyed when the workmen who found her broke the seal on her coffin! Heard you kinda choke up a little when the sentence ended, didn't you want to include this as part of her story?
So that’s where “crepehanger” came from!
If I was watching over a corpse and it "woke up" ........I'd be in the coffin
I have a baby coffin handle plate, missing the pull part, but it says "Our Darling" on it, my friend found it in the creek. I live about an hour from Canton, pretty interesting about William Mckinley. I can tell you as a Widow, I don't feel sexy.
Omg get on with it ….
Shes giving you free knowledge be more respectful or simply leave with your negative energy
Or simply research it yourself if you have 0 patience
Late reply
@@sametimes3235 doesn't make you any less rude
Crepe was most likely a fabric that easily took the black dye and if dyed correctly it would hold the dye well. Both wool and silk being natural fabrics easily found and bought. Those fabrics were also long lasting before becoming tatty.