The Mourning Room

Death was ‘celebrated’ and remembered in very different ways in the 1800s and early 1900s.  Before the invention of modern medicine every family suffered unexpected and untimely deaths. Queen Victoria set the code of conduct and dress when she lost her beloved Albert in 1861.  Her extreme grieving behavior lasted until her death forty years later.

This room features black mourning clothes, hair momentos, undertaker’s basket and a child size coffin. The coffin was never used, and gives us a look at funerary practices. The glass over the head allows family to view the deceased but not be exposed to whatever they may have died from.

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