The Victorians had a fascination with death with the mortality rate being low, and disease epidemics like tuberculosis and cholera ran rampant. It was a frequent and open conversation everyone had. They took photographs of the dead as a keepsake and wore ritualistic black clothing to mourn the dead. There was a procedure to do depending on who it was and the relation. It was about dictated etiquette and behaviour for public displays of remorse.
When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria went through a mourning period that lasted until she died in 1901. She publicly mourned her husband’s death which also coincided with the American Civil War. But this period faced many epidemics, had a religious society and had a rise of spiritualism with an interest with death and the afterlife. It had an effect on Victorian life that popularized wearing black more than people still carry out today.
Many people save up money for funeral expenses starting at a young age. They foregone with many things to ensure a good burial. Families knew in advance what type of burial the departed wanted if they wanted a casket or a coffin and what they wanted to wear.
Boer War, 1900-1901 – Last Summer Things Were Greener, 1901. Artist: John Byam Liston Shaw, Oil on canvas.
It also encompassed how long should someone mourn. The clothing was dictated by the amount of time since the person has passed, the relationship the mourner had with the deceased, the family’s social standing, the mourner’s age and the most defining – the gender of the mourner. The mourning period was set in three stages based on grief. There was a full mourning period (deep mourning), a second (ordinary) mourning, and a half mourning period (third mourning.)
The mourning period had different lengths of time for each type of relation to the deceased. If the spouse lost their beloved, it would be two years and a day. If it was a parent one year. If it was a sibling or grandparent, six months of mourning.
Crimean War: a guardian angel appearing to a widow mourning the death of her husband on the battlefield. Coloured aquatint by J. Harris, 1856, after O. Norie and W. Bullock Webster. Date: 18 January 1856. Source: Wellcome Library.
Women had the most extensive and stringent customs for the mourning period compared to men. The details of what women had to do were outlined in fashion magazines, periodicals, newspapers society articles, etiquette manuals, lady books of the era and etiquette guides listing the clothing, jewelry, how to properly grieve and other customs to follow ranged from informative to contradictory. Mourning outfits in fashion magazines and lady books like Harper’s Bazaar, Gody’s Lady Book, Peterson’s, Vanity Fair and Chatteline magazine regularly offered fashion advice and showcased new fashion for their readers. According to the article, Death Becomes Her: On the Progressive Potential of Victorian Mourning by Rebecca N. Mitchell, when the mourning women wore black it made them appear in the last phase as the dutiful wife in the last image of marriage as the Angel of the House. It was expected that women remained domestic. But another element is only true with younger wives than older ones. They appeared more attractive because the black dress signified a change in her life, and sexual experience and was open to suitors who could be better or more mature than her former spouse.
When someone has died a letter with a black border often with black satin was delivered to the family and close ones of the deceased. A black silk door knocker and black drapery on the top part of a window were attached to the home to show passersby people that someone just died.
Full Mourning Period
Black was the colour for the mourning period. It was the symbol of the absence of light – symbolizing life. It is a recognizable symbol that a loved one has died to others around them.
The dresses were rigid crepe, a stiff, scratchy fabric, that women wore for the full mourning period. It was also worn with a crinoline petticoat which was flammable and hit against everything in a narrow space. Crepe fabric, a black crinkled material, was very popular during this time because it was dull matte black and was economically manufactured from waste silk. The deeper and more matte the black was the better for the portrayal of mourning because it should be completely absence of light. Not even shiny buttons are allowed.
The widow’s outfit was known as the widow’s weeds. The weeds derive from the Medieval term for clothing, in general. The bereavement dress in the 1880s was in two separate parts a bodice and skirt with an apron front and a bustle at the back. Corsets, stockings and petticoats could be in black for the outfit. The wide cuffs on the wrists were called weepers intended to be used for the eyes to wipe tears away. Sometimes, handkerchiefs and letter papers trimmed in black were used. A knee-length black veil was worn by a widower anytime she left the house called a weeping veil. It was to conceal the crying in public and give privacy. But the chemicals used to create these veils had a chance to cause skin irritation, respiratory issues, blindness and even death. Since the Victorian period spanned to the 1900s different styles of the full bereavement dress were in fashion.
A wealthy woman could ask their dressmakers to make new outfits or purchase a ready-nade/on-the-rack bereavement dress or item from mourning warehouses or the bereavement counter at a department store. While more financially strapped women would dye a dye black to wear for the period. The colours of the dyed dress ranged from a deep olive green or grayed-out blues because it was difficult to dye a fabric a true black. But these dyes would stain the wearer, mainly on the arms and shoulders. Magazine articles would instruct readers on how to take out dye mark stains. Cream of tartar and oxalic acid were often suggested to help clean off the dye but was poisonous and to wash the compound off immediately. The dye was from a bichromate of potash which was reactive to sensitive skin with breakouts and blisters with hand swollen and ulcerated. It was a poison when it was in direct contact with the skin.
No jewelry was worn like necklaces or earrings during this time.
Furthermore, the mourners would not be seen in public that much, for instance at concerts or social gatherings, because they would be grieving and be left alone from society to mourn in peace. This lasted for at least the first three months because it would be distasteful to do so. A widower was expected to stay at home to fully mourn the loss. Close friends and family members still can visit the mourner.
Second mourning period
The rules loosened up about jewelry being worn. Women could wear jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and broaches if they wanted to.
Mourning brooch containing the hair of a deceased relative. Source: Wellcome Library. Public Domain.
Some wore a locket of their partner’s hair in a locket sometimes braided it in a knot design or tied with a ribbon to carry around which was one of the things Queen Victoria did with Prince Albert’s hair. Hair art from a loved one’s hair was popular to see in embroidered art. It was to keep a loved one close by. Even though most of the hair may not have belonged to the departed because other hair from wigs and other people could have been used as filler.
Widow weeds made of silk and jet. Source: The MET. Public Domain.
The jewelry popular to wear during this time was Jet Black gemstones. It is a deep flat opaque black that’s light to carry. The gemstone is a type of lignite coal that comes from ancient trees sinking to the bottom of a body of water then altered from heat and compressed over millions of years. There are two different types of Jet – soft Jet which is formed in freshwater and hard Jet formed in saltwater. Some Jet Black gemstones came from the seaside town of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Whitby Jet Black was considered a gold standard for the gemstone due to the Monkey Puzzle Tree falling in the salt waters on the northern coast of England millions of years ago to create hard Jet Black. Whitby jet is renowned for being pitch-black in colour, tough in temperament and smelling like coal when rubbed. Whitby Jet Black never cracked or faded over time. Before the Victorian era, Jet Black was used in protective amulets rings and buttons by the Romans and Vikings. Queen Victoria wore Jet Black jewelry during her second mourning period. She even ordered that mourning jewelry was only allowed in court during the Victorian era. There were copycat materials in Bakelite in the early 1900 century that started to flood the market which chipped and faded.
Other gemstones worn were black agate, black onyx, black cubic zirconia and black obsidian if Jet Black was unavailable. Some women who couldn’t afford Jet Black jewelry would wear black glass or black plastic instead. Even diamonds were appropriate to wear due to being colourless.
A black dress was still worn but with comfortable fabrics like satin which was less flammable. Plus, the wearer can have ornamental features like a crocheted white lace collar and cuffs.
Daguerreotype photography offered people a chance to photograph their departed for one last time as a memento mori to keep.
A widower still would be able to attend social events. Women would continue to cover their heads but with a white lace cap with long white ribbon streamers at the back called the widow’s Mary Stuart cap. Mary Stuart wore this cap in the 1500s. The shape of the cap at the front had a V-shaped peak that often touched the forehead. This peak is known as a Widow’s peak. Queen Victoria wore this cap too often.
Half-Mourning Period
Wearing colours during this mourning period was acceptable. This was a period when colours were being reintroduced into the wardrobe. Colours like greys, lavenders, and heliotrope were proper mourning colours to adorn dresses with and to near the final stage wear as a dress colour. Embroidered designs and beads were added to bereavement dresses. The widow wouldn’t need to wear a black dress.
The heliotrope flower symbolizes love and devotion. Unlike periwinkle being associated with cementaries and spiritualism, heliotrope was a flower people used in weddings and funerals. There are different variations of heliotrope in purple, pink, blue, and white. It was also popular as a fragrance used in most perfumes. The flower was discovered in 1735 by Joseph de Juissieu, a French doctor and botanist, who ventured to The Peruvian Andes with a scientific expedition which became popular in Europe after its introduction in 1751.
Some women never reached this phase of the mourning process due to the number of deaths they would have to pay respects to. These women were usually wearing black dresses for someone.
Men in mourning
During the deep mourning period, men wore black gloves, dark suits, and black bands around their hats or arms. They didn’t wear any type of ornamentation on their clothes either with the buttons, pins and fasteners on their clothes replaced with Jet black buttons and fasteners. A widowed man can go to social events due to little to no restrictions to his daily life.
They were expected to remarry to find a wife to help raise his children. If a man remarried, his new wife would be in the same stage of mourning as the husband wearing the clothing attached to the stage of mourning.
Children in mourning
Little children, mainly little girls, wore white dresses for a time to symbolize purity. If a child died, they could be in black or white when buried.
After the Victorian Era
When the Victorian era ended with Queen Victoria and the Edwardian period started some cultural changes happened. Women wore their mourning dresses for a shorter time in comparison to the previous era. Women could wear their deep mourning clothes for six months and half-mourning clothes for three months. The dresses were still made out of crepe for some time; but, black dresses started to have more of an individualistic personality. It was only around twenty years after the death of Queen Victoria that the creation of the little black dress by Coco Chanel revolutionized fashion while still being suitable as a mourning dress reflecting the styles of the Roaring Twenties.
A lot of mourning rituals from the Victorian era influenced modern society through funeral practices, goth fashion, and bereavement. The different courses of dress for bereavement were minimized to black clothing because of many changes in social expectations and expression. Most of what makes Western culture is uncomfortable to talk about death so most people avoid it now, let alone having a fully embraced custom like this one.
Banner Credit: Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash – Boer War, 1900-1901 – Last Summer Things Were Greener, 1901. Artist: John Byam Liston Shaw, Oil on canvas.
Mitchell, Rebecca N. “Death Becomes Her: On the Progressive Potential of Victorian Mourning.” Cambridge University Press, Dec. 2013, pp. 595–620.
Rowe, Helena. “Family Fashion and Fancies: Mourning Costumes – English and French Styles.” Good Housekeeping: A Fortnightly Journal, Springfield, Mass., 16 July 1889, p. 113.
Anonymous. “Fashions: Chitchat upon New York and Philadelphia Fashions For February.” Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine. Philadephia. (February 1857), p.192.
Under The Moonlight 
The Victorians had a fascination with death with the mortality rate being low, and disease epidemics like tuberculosis and cholera ran rampant. It was a frequent and open conversation everyone had. They took photographs of the dead as a keepsake and wore ritualistic black clothing to mourn the dead. There was a procedure to do depending on who it was and the relation. It was about dictated etiquette and behaviour for public displays of remorse.
When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria went through a mourning period that lasted until she died in 1901. She publicly mourned her husband’s death which also coincided with the American Civil War. But this period faced many epidemics, had a religious society and had a rise of spiritualism with an interest with death and the afterlife. It had an effect on Victorian life that popularized wearing black more than people still carry out today.
Many people save up money for funeral expenses starting at a young age. They foregone with many things to ensure a good burial. Families knew in advance what type of burial the departed wanted if they wanted a casket or a coffin and what they wanted to wear.
It also encompassed how long should someone mourn. The clothing was dictated by the amount of time since the person has passed, the relationship the mourner had with the deceased, the family’s social standing, the mourner’s age and the most defining – the gender of the mourner. The mourning period was set in three stages based on grief. There was a full mourning period (deep mourning), a second (ordinary) mourning, and a half mourning period (third mourning.)
The mourning period had different lengths of time for each type of relation to the deceased. If the spouse lost their beloved, it would be two years and a day. If it was a parent one year. If it was a sibling or grandparent, six months of mourning.
Women had the most extensive and stringent customs for the mourning period compared to men. The details of what women had to do were outlined in fashion magazines, periodicals, newspapers society articles, etiquette manuals, lady books of the era and etiquette guides listing the clothing, jewelry, how to properly grieve and other customs to follow ranged from informative to contradictory. Mourning outfits in fashion magazines and lady books like Harper’s Bazaar, Gody’s Lady Book, Peterson’s, Vanity Fair and Chatteline magazine regularly offered fashion advice and showcased new fashion for their readers. According to the article, Death Becomes Her: On the Progressive Potential of Victorian Mourning by Rebecca N. Mitchell, when the mourning women wore black it made them appear in the last phase as the dutiful wife in the last image of marriage as the Angel of the House. It was expected that women remained domestic. But another element is only true with younger wives than older ones. They appeared more attractive because the black dress signified a change in her life, and sexual experience and was open to suitors who could be better or more mature than her former spouse.
When someone has died a letter with a black border often with black satin was delivered to the family and close ones of the deceased. A black silk door knocker and black drapery on the top part of a window were attached to the home to show passersby people that someone just died.
Full Mourning Period
Black was the colour for the mourning period. It was the symbol of the absence of light – symbolizing life. It is a recognizable symbol that a loved one has died to others around them.
The dresses were rigid crepe, a stiff, scratchy fabric, that women wore for the full mourning period. It was also worn with a crinoline petticoat which was flammable and hit against everything in a narrow space. Crepe fabric, a black crinkled material, was very popular during this time because it was dull matte black and was economically manufactured from waste silk. The deeper and more matte the black was the better for the portrayal of mourning because it should be completely absence of light. Not even shiny buttons are allowed.
The widow’s outfit was known as the widow’s weeds. The weeds derive from the Medieval term for clothing, in general. The bereavement dress in the 1880s was in two separate parts a bodice and skirt with an apron front and a bustle at the back. Corsets, stockings and petticoats could be in black for the outfit. The wide cuffs on the wrists were called weepers intended to be used for the eyes to wipe tears away. Sometimes, handkerchiefs and letter papers trimmed in black were used. A knee-length black veil was worn by a widower anytime she left the house called a weeping veil. It was to conceal the crying in public and give privacy. But the chemicals used to create these veils had a chance to cause skin irritation, respiratory issues, blindness and even death. Since the Victorian period spanned to the 1900s different styles of the full bereavement dress were in fashion.
A wealthy woman could ask their dressmakers to make new outfits or purchase a ready-nade/on-the-rack bereavement dress or item from mourning warehouses or the bereavement counter at a department store. While more financially strapped women would dye a dye black to wear for the period. The colours of the dyed dress ranged from a deep olive green or grayed-out blues because it was difficult to dye a fabric a true black. But these dyes would stain the wearer, mainly on the arms and shoulders. Magazine articles would instruct readers on how to take out dye mark stains. Cream of tartar and oxalic acid were often suggested to help clean off the dye but was poisonous and to wash the compound off immediately. The dye was from a bichromate of potash which was reactive to sensitive skin with breakouts and blisters with hand swollen and ulcerated. It was a poison when it was in direct contact with the skin.
No jewelry was worn like necklaces or earrings during this time.
Furthermore, the mourners would not be seen in public that much, for instance at concerts or social gatherings, because they would be grieving and be left alone from society to mourn in peace. This lasted for at least the first three months because it would be distasteful to do so. A widower was expected to stay at home to fully mourn the loss. Close friends and family members still can visit the mourner.
Second mourning period
The rules loosened up about jewelry being worn. Women could wear jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and broaches if they wanted to.
Some wore a locket of their partner’s hair in a locket sometimes braided it in a knot design or tied with a ribbon to carry around which was one of the things Queen Victoria did with Prince Albert’s hair. Hair art from a loved one’s hair was popular to see in embroidered art. It was to keep a loved one close by. Even though most of the hair may not have belonged to the departed because other hair from wigs and other people could have been used as filler.
The jewelry popular to wear during this time was Jet Black gemstones. It is a deep flat opaque black that’s light to carry. The gemstone is a type of lignite coal that comes from ancient trees sinking to the bottom of a body of water then altered from heat and compressed over millions of years. There are two different types of Jet – soft Jet which is formed in freshwater and hard Jet formed in saltwater. Some Jet Black gemstones came from the seaside town of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Whitby Jet Black was considered a gold standard for the gemstone due to the Monkey Puzzle Tree falling in the salt waters on the northern coast of England millions of years ago to create hard Jet Black. Whitby jet is renowned for being pitch-black in colour, tough in temperament and smelling like coal when rubbed. Whitby Jet Black never cracked or faded over time. Before the Victorian era, Jet Black was used in protective amulets rings and buttons by the Romans and Vikings. Queen Victoria wore Jet Black jewelry during her second mourning period. She even ordered that mourning jewelry was only allowed in court during the Victorian era. There were copycat materials in Bakelite in the early 1900 century that started to flood the market which chipped and faded.
Other gemstones worn were black agate, black onyx, black cubic zirconia and black obsidian if Jet Black was unavailable. Some women who couldn’t afford Jet Black jewelry would wear black glass or black plastic instead. Even diamonds were appropriate to wear due to being colourless.
A black dress was still worn but with comfortable fabrics like satin which was less flammable. Plus, the wearer can have ornamental features like a crocheted white lace collar and cuffs.
Daguerreotype photography offered people a chance to photograph their departed for one last time as a memento mori to keep.
A widower still would be able to attend social events. Women would continue to cover their heads but with a white lace cap with long white ribbon streamers at the back called the widow’s Mary Stuart cap. Mary Stuart wore this cap in the 1500s. The shape of the cap at the front had a V-shaped peak that often touched the forehead. This peak is known as a Widow’s peak. Queen Victoria wore this cap too often.
Half-Mourning Period
Wearing colours during this mourning period was acceptable. This was a period when colours were being reintroduced into the wardrobe. Colours like greys, lavenders, and heliotrope were proper mourning colours to adorn dresses with and to near the final stage wear as a dress colour. Embroidered designs and beads were added to bereavement dresses. The widow wouldn’t need to wear a black dress.
The heliotrope flower symbolizes love and devotion. Unlike periwinkle being associated with cementaries and spiritualism, heliotrope was a flower people used in weddings and funerals. There are different variations of heliotrope in purple, pink, blue, and white. It was also popular as a fragrance used in most perfumes. The flower was discovered in 1735 by Joseph de Juissieu, a French doctor and botanist, who ventured to The Peruvian Andes with a scientific expedition which became popular in Europe after its introduction in 1751.
Some women never reached this phase of the mourning process due to the number of deaths they would have to pay respects to. These women were usually wearing black dresses for someone.
Men in mourning
During the deep mourning period, men wore black gloves, dark suits, and black bands around their hats or arms. They didn’t wear any type of ornamentation on their clothes either with the buttons, pins and fasteners on their clothes replaced with Jet black buttons and fasteners. A widowed man can go to social events due to little to no restrictions to his daily life.
They were expected to remarry to find a wife to help raise his children. If a man remarried, his new wife would be in the same stage of mourning as the husband wearing the clothing attached to the stage of mourning.
Children in mourning
Little children, mainly little girls, wore white dresses for a time to symbolize purity. If a child died, they could be in black or white when buried.
After the Victorian Era
When the Victorian era ended with Queen Victoria and the Edwardian period started some cultural changes happened. Women wore their mourning dresses for a shorter time in comparison to the previous era. Women could wear their deep mourning clothes for six months and half-mourning clothes for three months. The dresses were still made out of crepe for some time; but, black dresses started to have more of an individualistic personality. It was only around twenty years after the death of Queen Victoria that the creation of the little black dress by Coco Chanel revolutionized fashion while still being suitable as a mourning dress reflecting the styles of the Roaring Twenties.
A lot of mourning rituals from the Victorian era influenced modern society through funeral practices, goth fashion, and bereavement. The different courses of dress for bereavement were minimized to black clothing because of many changes in social expectations and expression. Most of what makes Western culture is uncomfortable to talk about death so most people avoid it now, let alone having a fully embraced custom like this one.
Banner Credit: Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash – Boer War, 1900-1901 – Last Summer Things Were Greener, 1901. Artist: John Byam Liston Shaw, Oil on canvas.
Reference:
Video – Gemstones – Where Does ‘Jet Black’ Come From?
Video – Victorian Vogue Historical Fashion Shows – VV presents Mourning
CNN: Edition – A forgotten gemstone that reigned during the Victorian era comes back into focus
Psychology Today – Death and Mourning Practices in the Victorian Age
The Vintage News – Mourning Fashion and Etiquette in the Victorian Era
Edwardian Promenade – Mourning in Edwardian and Post-War England
Lancaster History – Mid-Late Victorian Mourning Dress
Mitchell, Rebecca N. “Death Becomes Her: On the Progressive Potential of Victorian Mourning.” Cambridge University Press, Dec. 2013, pp. 595–620.
Rowe, Helena. “Family Fashion and Fancies: Mourning Costumes – English and French Styles.” Good Housekeeping: A Fortnightly Journal, Springfield, Mass., 16 July 1889, p. 113.
Anonymous. “Fashions: Chitchat upon New York and Philadelphia Fashions For February.” Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine. Philadephia. (February 1857), p.192.
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