Victorian Mourning Dolls

[Eleanor Rose]

Wax mourning doll circa 1860. (Wikipedia Commons)
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Victorian mourning dolls are one of the most overlooked elements of the Victorian grief process. For wealthy families who lost a child, it seems it was customary to create a mourning doll bearing the likeness of their dearly departed. The dolls were typically made from wax, and often times, the hair would be taken straight from the dead body of the child it was meant to resemble and added straight to the doll's head. This was in the hopes of finding some level of authenticity. The mourning doll was usually laid at the grave of the deceased child, but sometimes the doll would be kept and placed in a crib, having its clothes changed and being generally cared for as though it were a real child. To mimic the feel of a real child, these dolls were weighted with sand and heavy cloth. Apparently, this was seen as a healthy way for the family to cope with their loss.

Mourning dolls that remain today were preserved in large glass boxes and, typically, depict a child between 0-3 years of age. Older children tend to have been depicted merely from the shoulders up.

According to Louise Hung, a contributor to "The Order of the Good Death," many little girls were presented with so-called 'Death Kits', which included a doll and miniature coffin. In play, the child would then, "practice dressing the doll, laying it out for visitation, placing it in the coffin, and facilitating a funeral. She might also be expected to practice attending to the grief of the doll's mourners." These dolls were seen as ideal primers for young girls who, should they survive to adulthood, would almost certainly be called upon to care for their own dead. Little girls staged elaborate funerals for their dolls.

 

[DBF]

In play, the child would then, "practice dressing the doll, laying it out for visitation, placing it in the coffin, and facilitating a funeral.

In some ways I can understand "educating" in the ways of laying out a body as this was pre-funeral homes and it was the way it was done, but I can't imagine the girls ever wanting to play with a "death" doll outside of its intended use. All I ever did with my dolls was push them around in a doll stroller.

 

[Mrs. V]

And here I've been creeped out by hair jewelry...

 

[dlofting]

Thanks for posting.....fascinating. I find it very interesting to read about how people of past times dealt with death. I'm sure they were no less saddened by the death of a loved one than we are today, but it seems that they were far less removed from it.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Fascinating topic, Eleanor! Had never heard of mourning dolls but not surprised. I wouldn't think many would survive, especially if they were left at graves.

If you read the novel, "Christy" which was written in 1967 by Catherine Marshall, even though it is fictional, she did her research. Catherine was the wife of a minister in real life and understood Appalachian life. She used real events in a fictional setting. The children there played funeral most of the time.

Any walk through any historical graveyard shows that most families were thoroughly acquainted with death and lots of if. My great-grandfather went through three wives and some small children - all the wives died of TB. I suspect, but of course can't prove, he could have been a carrier but didn't come down with the disease himself. There was a lot of that too with TB. Until streptomycin came in during WWII, the only possible cure for TB was complete rest, fresh, dry air and hope you have a good immune system.

And if it wasn't TB it was something else, fevers, measles, scarlet fever, diptheria, pneumonia, etc.

Up here in the Northeast, it is very common, if the grave is even marked to have a small lamb on the grave. If the child's grave isn't marked, it is often engraved on the parent's headstone that a baby is buried there. It is very sweet and very poignant at the same time. Calling @John Winn did they do Mourning Dolls or Lamb Gravestones in the Northwest?

 

[John Winn]

Fascinating topic, Eleanor! Had never heard of mourning dolls but not surprised. I wouldn't think many would survive, especially if they were left at graves.

If you read the novel, "Christy" which was written in 1967 by Catherine Marshall, even though it is fictional, she did her research. Catherine was the wife of a minister in real life and understood Appalachian life. She used real events in a fictional setting. The children there played funeral most of the time.

Any walk through any historical graveyard shows that most families were thoroughly acquainted with death and lots of if. My great-grandfather went through three wives and some small children - all the wives died of TB. I suspect, but of course can't prove, he could have been a carrier but didn't come down with the disease himself. There was a lot of that too with TB. Until streptomycin came in during WWII, the only possible cure for TB was complete rest, fresh, dry air and hope you have a good immune system.

And if it wasn't TB it was something else, fevers, measles, scarlet fever, diptheria, pneumonia, etc.

Up here in the Northeast, it is very common, if the grave is even marked to have a small lamb on the grave. If the child's grave isn't marked, it is often engraved on the parent's headstone that a baby is buried there. It is very sweet and very poignant at the same time. Calling @John Winn did they do Mourning Dolls or Lamb Gravestones in the Northwest?

You rang ?

I'd never heard of a mourning doll until just now. Like postmortem photos I find the notion ... um ... unattractive. But as I often say, they weren't like us in many ways.

As to lamb symbology on gravestones, that's very common in the PNW. Monuments of any type were uncommon for children less than a year old (but a few can be found).

 

[Mrs. V]

I have to wonder at the artist who sculpted these dolls. As they were meant to resemble the child, they must have worked from either death photos or from viewing the body in person. I do sort of get the hair. Long hair was so common, it would not take much to make a wig for a baby doll.

In some ways, I understand their facination in death, as it would have been so common. And infant/child mortality rates were at a rate no one these days can really understand.

In the same vein, I've often seen "family grave stones" where every child of the same sex, had the same first name. The only thing different was the middle name, and then that would have been the name they went by, if they lived. It always makes me wonder. Pick a name, and hope one survives to wear it?

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

The only thing different was the middle name, and then that would have been the name they went by

And sometimes, those were the "formal" names but they went by different nicknames. My mother's family did this. My mother's name was Bernice but went by Posy. Her brother Archie was called Buster, Gerald was called Tom.

My father's family tended to use their real names more, but my father was Henry Ernest and for years and years when younger called Baby, heck, sometime when he was in his 70s his older brother stilled called him that! He had a sister called Belle, which wasn't her name but I don't remember her real name. The olders did use their first or middle names, so it wasn't as set in stone as my mother's family. But in reading a lot of New England diaries, I've come across a lot of these nicknaming trends.

 

[John Winn]

Boy, I'm painfully familiar with the repetitive use of first and middle names and the use of nicknames. Those have made my genealogy work and cemetery research very difficult in a number of cases ! Another confusing thing is the use of "Junior" in male names; that could mean 'the son of' but often was used for nephews or even cousins who had the same name as a living elder so that people could know who they were talking about. German male names are really confusing; seems every third male used the name Fritz no matter what his birth name.

With women, not only were the nicknames confusing - e.g. Polly for Mary - but often different generations would just switch the first and middle names so there'd be a Mary Susan Smith and a Susan Mary Smith in the same family who lived at the same time. In two cases in my family such-named women married brothers with the same first-second name switch, one of whom went by his middle name and the other by his first, thus seriously confusing the records.

Maybe all that early mortality and mothers with twelve children warped their minds a bit.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

@John Winn , I'm glad to see you're well and still have your wonderful sense of humor!