My angel mother

[BettyO]

(08-12-2012 10:29 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  

(08-12-2012 05:29 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Excellent point, Donna, about Victorian symbolism and language related to mourning. It is a study of culture in its own right. I was raised with that same respect for the dead, and I guess that's why I have a hard time accepting the current trend to want to dig up historical figures centuries after their death to satisfy historical curiosity.

For years, Surratt House Museum held a Victorian mourning exhibit; and the photos, memorabilia, jewelry, hair wreaths, art, etc. associated with the death of loved ones were touching and reverent.

I wish I lived closer to the Surratt House Museum so I could visit such wonderful exhibits as the one you mentioned. One of my most requested lectures is one titled "Mourning, It's A Way of Life." People always enjoy it, but the pictures of dead children seem "creepy" to modern eyes. You are correct to say it is a culture in its own right. So often, we forget the rules, symbolism, and reasons for them. A few years ago when attending a funeral in Southern Indiana, all of the family members wore black or black and white. Well, everyone except the widow. There were whispers when she appeared wearing kelly green. The couple had moved to Florida many years prior, and there was an understanding that she had just forgotten what was proper.

I have always had an interest in Victorian culture as well as Civil War history and like Laurie, am a firm believer that in order to understand the Civil War, the Lincolns and yes, even the assassination and the conspirators - one has to "know" the people involved - i.e. what made people who they were; how were they raised? What were the social customs they were taught, how did they dress and why, what did their behavior and manners entail, why did they conduct themselves in a certain way, etc.

Mourning social custom and symbolism was as you say a VERY big part of life as was death. It seems creepy to us today - but it was not to the Victorians. They were more closely allied to mortality than we are today and what seems creepy to us was a vital part of their existence.