The Culture and Art of Death in 19th Century America

Nineteenth-century Victorian mourning rituals--long and elaborate public funerals, the wearing of lavishly somber mourning clothes, and families posing for portraits with deceased loved ones--are often depicted as bizarre or scary. But behind many were rational or spiritual meanings. This book takes an in-depth look at how death affected Victorian society and the creative ways in which people responded to it. The author discusses mediums as performance artists, postmortem painters and photographers, and draws a connection between death and the emergence of 3-dimensional media.