Mourning In An 1800's Kinda Way

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

I found this website 19TH CENTURY MOURNING CLOTHING It also made me think of Joel Peter Witkin, one of my fave photographers.
Mourning in the older ages apparently (and apparelly) meant more to folks back then. These days folks show up at funerals in jeans. I made a shiva call not too long ago and folks were just in jeans.
In years gone by I heard people talking about having a wedding suit or their funeral suit and sometimes they'd be the same but they were always put aside for those occasions.
Any ideas about this topic? Observations about these situations?

 

[crescendo69]

The link didn't work so I am in mourning.:frown1:

But seriously, I would still dress up (coat and tie) for a funeral/memorial service, as I believe most around here still do.

 

[B_Nick4444]

I had this one instructor from school who would tell us what it was like -- there would be actual crying and wailing, that would go on for hours, and signs of mourning, including dress, would be displayed and observed for specified days/weeks

he also mentioned that people somehow knew when they were going to die (?) and would plan their own funerals and send out invitations

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

The link didn't work so I am in mourning.:frown1:

But seriously, I would still dress up (coat and tie) for a funeral/memorial service, as I believe most around here still do.

Link fixed.

 

[MickeyLee]

The Thanatos Archive

Post Mortem and Mourning photos dating back to the 1800s.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

The Thanatos Archive

Post Mortem and Mourning photos dating back to the 1800s.

ML I've seen that website before. What strikes me the most about the 1800's and in particular regarding photography is that it didn't seem weird for folks to take pics of themselves w/dead babies and family members. Yes it skeezes me to the nth degree but i ddin't live back then and I can't imagine how that all seemed like a good idea. I still can't even comprehend the concept of people having wakes in their own homes. Going to sleep at night w/abody in a coffin in the living room, How did folks get up and make breakfast w/a body in a coffin in the next room?

 

[D_Rod Staffinbone]

ML I've seen that website before. What strikes me the most about the 1800's and in particular regarding photography is that it didn't seem weird for folks to take pics of themselves w/dead babies and family members. Yes it skeezes me to the nth degree but i ddin't live back then and I can't imagine how that all seemed like a good idea. I still can't even comprehend the concept of people having wakes in their own homes. Going to sleep at night w/abody in a coffin in the living room, How did folks get up and make breakfast w/a body in a coffin in the next room?

i had a book once called "wisconsin death trip" and it was photos as you described, a practice common back then in mostly rural wisconsin. someone offered to buy it from me long ago as it was out of print, i sold it to him for
about double what i had paid for it. a reprint is now available from amazon for about $25. i'm not exactly sure what my original interest with the book was, i was in college at the time i ran across it (used) at an independent bookstore.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

I kinda align tis w/my interest in Witkin pics...tho the two are really separate. It's greatly interesting to me these old practices. Morbid yes but still interesting. I couldn't do it, hold my dead baby and take a family portrait but the worls was different then. If those folks came past to us in our time they'd think we were all really insane. I still cAn't wrap my head around folks holding wakes in their own homes and living there w/the body in the next room tho.

 

[D_Rod Staffinbone]

i've read that people used to pack picnic lunches and take them to the cemeteries in the 1800's, a cemetery in hollywood (now called "hollywood forever") even had an outdoor film series recently, but i think that's just tapping into the goth stuff, what with the "graveline tours" (which originally were in a hearst, now in a van that they call a "tomb buggy") of hollywood and all that.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

i've read that people used to pack picnic lunches and take them to the cemetaries in the 1800's, a cemetary in hollywood (now called "hollywood forever") even had an outdoor film series recently, but i think that's just tapping into the goth stuff, what with the "graveline tours" of hollywood and all that.

Funny you mention that because one of my best friends works there,

 

[D_Rod Staffinbone]

Funny you mention that because one of my best friends works there,

johnny ramone and dee dee ramone are both buried at the hollywood forever cemetery, as is jayne mansfield (at least there is a headstone for her there), and as will be my ex's mom when she goes. it's a all little too weird, but i do find some humor in it. gabba gabba hey.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

johnny ramone and dee dee ramone are both buried at the hollywood forever cemetery, as is jayne mansfield (at least there is a headstone for her there), and as will be my ex's mom when she goes. it's a little too weird, but i do find some humor in it all. gabba gabba hey.

Gabba gabbe gabba galore! Well Your ex's mom will be in good company with upcoming people to die. My friend has sworn me to secrecy as to the stars she shows around and sells plots to.

 

[MarkLondon]

Some people (mostly goth types) dress in Victorian mourning clothes for the annual Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery -- Open Day

"There were tours of the cemetery, a display of 20 hearses, women with coffin-shaped handbags, penny-farthing bicycles, a Black Sabbath tribute band and a stall selling honey and jam. It was like a cross between a funeral, a gig by the Cure and a village fete."

 

[Principessa]

i've read that people used to pack picnic lunches and take them to the cemeteries in the 1800's, a cemetery in hollywood (now called "hollywood forever") even had an outdoor film series recently, but i think that's just tapping into the goth stuff, what with the "graveline tours" (which originally were in a hearst, now in a van that they call a "tomb buggy") of hollywood and all that.

Before there was Central Park there were park-like cemetaries. They were designed with rolling hills, trees, walkways, and benches so that people would feel comfortable being there for picnics.

I found this website 19TH CENTURY MOURNING CLOTHING It also made me think of Joel Peter Witkin, one of my fave photographers.
Mourning in the older ages apparently (and apparelly) meant more to folks back then. These days folks show up at funerals in jeans. I made a shiva call not too long ago and folks were just in jeans.
In years gone by I heard people talking about having a wedding suit or their funeral suit and sometimes they'd be the same but they were always put aside for those occasions.
Any ideas about this topic? Observations about these situations?

There are many differences between the 1800's and now but the greatest is that people in the 1800's valued human life. When a spouse, sibling, or parent died the family grieved . . . for a year. Society respected the fact that a soul had passed and people needed time to work through that.

Another interesting thing from this time period was the hair wreath. I have always found these gross but it was all the rage back then.

 

[kalipygian]

We moved my Granny to the family cemetery ten years before she died.

 

[D_Rod Staffinbone]

hair wreath. I have always found these gross but it was all the rage back then.

wow, never heard of hair wreaths, but they could make a comeback as a great way to store the dna of the deceased in a respectful and artistic, though somewhat strange, manner.

 

[Principessa]

wow, never heard of hair wreaths, but they could make a comeback as a great way to store the dna of the deceased in a respectful and artistic, though somewhat strange, manner.

I hadn't considered that, but yeah I guess you could do that.

 

[2322]

I want to show you my favorite bit of Victorian mourning art. It's Henry Peach Robinson's photograph entitled, Fading Away. It represents the immense sentimentality of the period yet is also a technical achievement in that it's actually comprised of five different composite exposures. Not shabby for 1858.

Fading Away