There is a great new exhibit in the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that explores the subject of mourning attire from the 1830s through 1915. "Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire" will be on display through February 1.
Harold Holzer just told me that they had 4,000 visitors to the exhibit just last Saturday! I had hoped there was an exhibition booklet to accompany it, but unfortunately there is none. Today's issue (Friday, November 14) of The Washington Post does have a nice article on the history, however. See their Style section C, pg 1 and continued on pg. 8.
Laurie,
I had read
this article about in on CNN and it definitely sounded interesting.
KateH and I are hoping to view this exhibit in the near future (possibly around Thanksgiving). If we do, I'll be sure to post pictures here.
This looks like a fabulous exhibit on an important social custom in the Victorian era. I only wish that there was a catalog or exhibit book - what a shame! Someone really missed the boat there....
Please do let us know if you see the exhibit and post photos, Dave!
Thanks -
I would have thought creating a special exhibit book would have been a no-brainer considering all the other art related books I have seen while wandering around the MET. But alas, that idea was never realized.
The Museum of the Confederacy had an exhibit many years ago on mourning. Their is also an excellent PBS documentary "Death in the Civil War". It points out, among other things, the incredible effort by the government to go back to the battlefields after the war and recover remains of Union soldiers, try to identify them, and rebury them in the new National Cemetery system. The Federal government did nothing for the Confederate soldiers killed in action. This created a further divide and was an impediment to reunification of the country. Private associations, most women, put forth a remarkable effort to do the same in the South with no public funding. I highly recommend the video, available on Netflix.
Great pictures, thank you for sharing. More elaborate than I would have expected.
The first two pictures on the bottom row, seem to me like they might have raised an eyebrow or two for mourning apparel back in their day.