Dress Historian Analyzes Victorian Mourning Clothing of the Mid-19th Century

Victorian mourning clothing and practices never fail to fascinate us today. It seems every museum, from the Met to your local historical house, has had a mourning exhibit, especially around Halloween. But the popularity of Victorian mourning clothing means there are a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding it, which I hope I can dispel. In this video, I will be sharing my research into the mourning clothing of the mid-19th century, primarily the 1850s and 60s. This is a subject that has been close to my heart for several years now, and I'm thrilled to be able to share it with a wider audience here on YouTube!

For people of the mid-19th century, particularly women, the rituals of mourning dress provided a socially accepted system for expressing and processing grief and loss. Wearing mourning clothing was an outward and visible sign of an inward invisible state. Along with limited social interaction, women were expected to demonstrate their grief through a change in clothing that corresponded with the degrees of mourning based on their relationship to the deceased and the amount of time that had passed since the death. The progression from wearing all black to lighter colors was meant to mirror the emotional progression that the bereaved could experience, moving from all-consuming grief and limited social interaction to eventual healing and return to society.

Godey's Magazine Online: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000050287

Images:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Frederic_Leighton_-_Mrs._James_Guthrie_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Queen_Victoria_-_Queen_Victoria_in_1863.png
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/lilj/item/2010647216/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polonia_Zalobne_wiesci.jpg
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002697355/
http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1360538
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666214/
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/gld/item/2010647799/
https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/23/collection/2105718/queen-victoria-1819-1901
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii_-_Brady-Handy1.jpg/773px-Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii_-_Brady-Handy1.jpg
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285881?rpp=90&pg=222&ft=glass&pos=19924
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/101210
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.38705/?co=lilj
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.53271/?co=lilj

Music from Epidemic Sound

Видео Dress Historian Analyzes Victorian Mourning Clothing of the Mid-19th Century канала Samantha Bullat