{"id":4245,"date":"2025-12-06T16:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2025-12-08T10:23:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:23:40","slug":"a-deep-dive-into-the-strange-and-touching-victorian-era-mourning-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/06\/a-deep-dive-into-the-strange-and-touching-victorian-era-mourning-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"A Deep Dive into the Strange and Touching Victorian-Era Mourning Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"A Deep Dive into the Strange and Touching Victorian-Era Mourning Traditions\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mourning-1.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>One of the top comments on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MsxHn0e796Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a new video<\/a> from the Victoria and Albert Museum reads as follows: &#8220;I think it is time to have a renaissance of mourning. In this age of sanitized and hidden grief, it would be a welcomed relief for a more refined mourning experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This commenter is responding to two V&amp;A curators unboxing a collection of 19th-century objects common in Victorian mourning traditions. Through a variety of garments, ephemera, and photos, the pair showcases the elaborate rituals and rites people once used to honor the dead.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Unboxing Victorian Mourning: Dress, Human Hair Jewellery &amp; Postmortem Photos\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MsxHn0e796Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The video highlights a black, silk gown with tiny pleats, delicate lace, and sequins, along with jewelry made from semi-precious jet stones, and brooches containing human hair. The curators also present several printed artifacts, like mourning cards and portraits of the dying.<\/p>\n<p>What becomes clear throughout the video is how much our contemporary culture of grief and loss has turned inward and is something managed privately rather than shared with a community. &#8220;Mourning objects can be personal, portable, ostentatious, sentimental, or even a little bit grizzly,&#8221; the curators add. &#8220;Is it too much? Or do you think we should mourn the passing of these poignant and fascinating trappings of grief?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Find the unboxing on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@vamuseum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a>, along with several additional adventures in the museum&#8217;s collections.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1361\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"a still of hands holding a brooch made of hair\" class=\"wp-image-466558 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mouraning-1.jpg\"><\/figure>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\">Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2025\/12\/va-museum-mourning-traditions-video\/\">A Deep Dive into the Strange and Touching Victorian-Era Mourning Traditions<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\">Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the top comments on a new video from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4250,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245\/revisions\/4250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}