Stuff

low-sodium-option asked:

Love what your doing today and I have a ton of questions. Maybe you can answer or let me know where to look to find out more. Some of these dresses look expensive so how did mourning look among lower classes? Did men have special mourning clothes? Did practices change depending on who you were mourning (like, a child verses a spouse)? When/why did wearing mourning clothes for extended periods of time stop? Sorry about the question dump. I'm just so hyped about all this.

omgthatdress answered:

No problem! I can answer ‘em!

1. Mourning was definitely a thing for the rich. Replacing your entire wardrobe is not easy. Sometimes women would dye all their existing clothes black and do it that way. It actually wasn’t practiced as much in America. Queen Victoria mourning Prince Albert’s death was the one who set the standard rules for mourning, an event which coincided with the American Civil War, a bloody, brutal war in which everyone lost someone. When *everyone* goes into mourning at the same time, it becomes clear how impractical a practice it is, and it was actually banned in some places in the south. So it was generally practiced more in Europe (not that American ladies didn’t do mourning, it just wasn’t the same). When WW1 came around and Europe went through basically the same thing, it went out of fashion.

2. Men would wear a black armband or a black hat band, but generally they didn’t mourn the same way women mourned. Men had better things to do than sit around wearing black! It shows a lot about gender roles in the Victorian era: women are angels of the home who are devoted entirely to their children and especially their husbands (who had the longest and most strenuous periods of mourning. Older women whose husbands died would do like Queen Victoria and remain in mourning for the rest of their lives).

3. Yes. Husbands had the longest periods of mourning, followed by children, and then parents and siblings.

4. Answered in question #1.

elimsyzeehc

Mourning also diminished during the push West in the mid 1800s. Some particular examples occur on the Overland Trail in the 1850s-1860s. Women who were firmly in their “domestic sphere” in the east took time to write poetry and prose on mourning and that activity all but disappeared within pioneering families. A husband’s death was often mentioned in one sentence. Never again. The settlers typically didnt return to the elaborate mourning practices once settled. An explanation has been presented in that the women were thrust from their separate world into the men’s “sphere” during the journey, and things that defined their domestic existence were cast aside in exchange for being able to contribute physically. This was synonymous with a loss of autonomy in their own “world” as well, which is a different topic. The women did not return to the old ways once settled because their role was transformed into a more utilitarian existence rather than a domestic one as they traveled westward and the role remained the same once they reached their settlement. A good reason we don’t see elaborate mourning rituals in early colonial pioneers as well.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

More you might like