{"id":118,"date":"2009-10-16T09:51:21","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T13:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/?p=118"},"modified":"2016-12-20T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T14:47:13","slug":"mourning-jewelry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Mourning Jewelry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Litchfield Historical Society has a significant collection of mourning jewelry and many of the pieces were donated to the museum by the descendents of the individuals who owned the pieces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-121\" src=\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2006-41-1-300x295.jpg\" alt=\"2006-41-1\" width=\"300\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2006-41-1-300x295.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2006-41-1-1024x1007.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2006-41-1.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Mourning brooch made of human hair, 2006-41-1 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Babbitt<\/p>\n<p>Mourning jewelry seems strange and even grotesque to many people today.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are unfamilar with the term, mourning jewelry is a piece of jewelry constructed primarily of human hair.\u00a0 It was a very common practice for loved ones to exhange locks of hair.\u00a0 It was a tangible way for a person to be remembered in the days before photography.\u00a0 Throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, the recently deceased were often memorialized through the practice of taking a lock of hair and having it incorporated into a piece of jewelry.\u00a0 Rings, necklaces, bracelets and even earrings were made of hair.\u00a0 For men, watch chains and rings were popular forms.\u00a0 The bereaved were comforted by keeping a piece of their deceased loved one close to them.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-124\" src=\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1937-07-4-2-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"1937-07-4-2\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1937-07-4-2-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1937-07-4-2-1024x619.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Bracelet made of human hair, 1937-07-4, Gift of the William Colgate Estate<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-126\" src=\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1923-04-6b-and-1921-02-39-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"1923-04-6b-and-1921-02-39\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1923-04-6b-and-1921-02-39-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/1923-04-6b-and-1921-02-39-1024x619.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Pair of earring made of human hair and jet, 1923-04-6 Gift of Mrs. Edwards W. Seymour<\/p>\n<p>It was a skill that many women practiced at home.\u00a0 Molds were sold and instructions were available through magazines like Godey&#8217;s Ladies Book which was published from 1830 to 1878.\u00a0 There were also businesses that formed in larger towns and cities that offered the service of creating mourning jewelry for the public.\u00a0 Mourning jewelry became especially prolific during the Civil War when many American households lost loved ones to battle and disease.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-125\" src=\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cardboard-box-with-mourning-artist-sticker-300x228.jpg\" alt=\"cardboard-box-with-mourning-artist-sticker\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cardboard-box-with-mourning-artist-sticker-300x228.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cardboard-box-with-mourning-artist-sticker-1024x778.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cardboard-box-with-mourning-artist-sticker.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Jewelry Box, C. Linherr Artist in Hair 577 Broadway New York City, Donor Unknown<\/p>\n<p>This October, the Historical Society has a small display case in the Ching Reading Room of the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library which showcases some of the museum&#8217;s mourning jewelry collection.\u00a0 In addition, the case includes other artifacts and archives associated with mourning and the ritual of death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Litchfield Historical Society has a significant collection of mourning jewelry and many of the pieces were donated to the museum by the descendents of the individuals who owned the pieces. Mourning brooch made of human hair, 2006-41-1 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Babbitt Mourning jewelry seems strange and even grotesque to many people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}