Women in the Victorian period adhered to semi-rigid social rules for mourning. They were expected to wear appropriate mourning clothes for set periods of time following the death of a family member. The time-frames for stages of mourning and the lengths of those stages varied by community and family. The following suggests typical mourning periods:
| A widow for a husband: | A year and a day, to life |
| A widower for a wife | 3-6 months |
| Parent for a child: | 6-12 months |
| Child for a parent: | 6-12 months |
| For a grandparent: | 6 months |
| For an aunt or uncle: | 3 months |
Women would move from periods of “deep” to “ordinary” to “light” mourning. Each stage had its own accepted fashions. Deep mourning took place immediately after the death. Women would wear black dresses and bonnets without decorative trims. Black veils, crepe on their dresses, gloves, shoes, and accessories were also black. During ordinary mourning, women could abandon the veil and crepe, introduce ornate jewelry and add white trim to dresses. Lilac, purple, and gray were permissible when a woman entered light mourning. Men were not expected to adhere to rigid mourning rules. Following the burial, they were expected to return to work in order to support the family. Men could wear a long crepe band on his hat called a “weeper.” The width of the weeper around his hat represented his relationship with the deceased. Other optional men’s fashions included black armbands or a black ribbon on the lapel.
The photographs in this case belong to the Mark A. Anderson Collection of Post-Mortem Photography.
Left: H. G. Hughson, [woman dressed in deep mourning clothes], cabinet card: ca. 1880s-1890s.
Middle: [Woman dressed in deep mourning clothes], tintype: 19th century.
Right: Van Aken, [woman dressed in deep mourning clothes, with a miniature portrait brooch], cabinet card, Elmira, New York: ca. 1880s-1890s.
