Charles Dickens 200, Google Art

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Google tribute to

Charles Dickens who turns 200 today!

Charles John Huffam Dickens 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters.

Victorian Era Postmortem Photos

"The origins of memento mori photographs can be traced back nearly to the beginning of photography itself. During the nineteenth century, post-mortem portraits were used to acknowledge and mourn the death of a loved one, especially a baby or child. All social classes engaged in the practice, which became more widespread after the introduction of the daguerrotype in 1839. The subjects of the photos were generally arranged to appear as if peacefully asleep, all their earthly suffering ended. Displayed prominently in the household alongside other family photographs, the portraits helped heal grieving hearts by preserving some trace of the deceased.

And they still do."

For a wonderful site on the subject go HERE

Favorite Things

Lady Audley's Secret follows Robert Audley through his detective-like work in trying to uncover what happened to his friend George Talboys and who his uncle's wife, Lucy Audley, really is. During his search, Robert has to deal with lies, deceit, and even an attempt to kill him.



The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a "whodunnit" novel by Charles Dickens, his last novel left unfinished at his death in 1870. The story centers on the disappearance of Edwin Droods. John Jasper, Drood's uncle, leads a double life as cathedral choirmaster and opium addict. Secretly, Jasper regularly travels to London opium den to satisfy his craving. Edwin Drood is engaged to Rosa Bud as a child, but the couple don't have special affection for each other, simply, not in love, so their engagement is dissolved. Jasper holds a passion for Rosa. The story thickens as Edwin Drood disappears on a Christmas Eve after a raging thunderstorm. Because of the author's death and the novel left uncompleted, there have been speculations as to what might have happened, or how Dickens might have wanted the story to end. Most commentators presume the obvious, that Jasper murdered Drood. Some events are not clear, for example, the orphaned twins who come to live with Mr Crisparkle in Cloisterham or about Dick Datchery, the disguised detective who arrives to investigate Drood's disappearance.



In a surreal turn-of-the-century London, Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist taskforce at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view. After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to prove that he is a true anarchist. Instead of the anarchist Gregory getting elected, the officer Syme uses his wits and is elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists. The Council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name; Syme is given the name of Thursday. In his efforts to thwart the council's intentions, however, he discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was just as mysteriously employed and assigned to defeat the Council of Days. They all soon find out that they are fighting each other and not real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of the genius Sunday. In a dizzying and surreal conclusion, the six champions of order and former anarchist ring-leaders chase down the disturbing and whimsical Sunday, the man who calls himself "The Peace of God".

Edward Hull~ Watercolourist

Edward Hull (1823 – 1906), a well-known illustrator and watercolour painter, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.
Born in Keysoe in Bedfordshire, England, the second son of a farmer, he painted many watercolours but was mainly known as a book illustrator. He was employed for many years up to 1861 by The Illustrated Times the best-known publication in London, and was an illustrator for several books such as Stratford on Avon by Sidney Lee (published around 1890) and The Laureate's Country (a book on Alfred Tennyson) by Alfred J. Church, published around the same time.
Edward Hull symbolises the spirit of illustration in the 19th Century. The great illustrators such a Phiz (who illustrated many of Dickens's books) are well known. Edward Hull represents the many who plied their trade in periodicals and books before the advent of photography in the early 20th Century.
Edward Hull was born in Keysoe, Bedfordshire, but lived most of his life in London. He travelled widely in England as his paintings and illustrations show. He married and had two daughters and three granddaughters. He died on 3 February, 1906 and is buried in St Peters Church in Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire.

The Fox Sisters

The Fox sisters were three women from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism, the religious movement. The three sisters were Kate Fox (1837–1892), Leah Fox (1814–1890) and Margaret Fox (also called Maggie) (1833–1893).

In 1848, the two younger sisters – Kate and Margaret – were living in a house in Hydesville, New York with their parents. Hydesville was a hamlet which no longer exists but was part of the township of Arcadia in Wayne County. The house had some prior reputation for being haunted, but it wasn't until late March that the family began to be frightened by unexplained sounds that at times sounded like knocking, and at other times like the moving of furniture.
In 1888, Margaret told her story of the origins of the mysterious "rappings" :
"When we went to bed at night we used to tie an apple to a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. Mother listened to this for a time. She would not understand it and did not suspect us as being capable of a trick because we were so young."
During the night of March 31, Kate challenged the invisible noise-maker, presumed to be a "spirit", to repeat the snaps of her fingers. "It" did. "It" was asked to rap out the ages of the girls. "It" did. The neighbours were called in, and over the course of the next few days a type of code was developed where raps could signify yes or no in response to a question, or be used to indicate a letter of the alphabet.




The girls initially addressed the spirit as "Mr. Splitfoot" which is a nickname for the Devil. Later, the alleged "entity" creating the sounds claimed to be the spirit of a peddler named Charles B. Rosma, who had been murdered five years earlier and buried in the cellar. Doyle claims the neighbours dug up the cellar and found a few pieces of bone, but it wasn't until 1904 that a skeleton was found, buried in the cellar wall. No missing person named Charles B. Rosma was ever identified.
Margaret Fox, in her later years noted:
"They [the neighbors] were convinced that some one had been murdered in the house. They asked the spirits through us about it and we would rap one for the spirit answer 'yes,' not three as we did afterwards. The murder they concluded must have been committed in the house. They went over the whole surrounding country trying to get the names of people who had formerly lived in the house. Finally they found a man by the name of Bell, and they said that this poor innocent man had committed a murder in the house and that the noises had come from the spirit of the murdered person. Poor Bell was shunned and looked upon by the whole community as a murderer."

Kate and Margaret were sent away to nearby Rochester during the excitement — Kate to the house of her sister Leah, and Margaret to the home of her brother David — and it was found that the rappings followed them. Amy and Isaac Post, a radical Quaker couple and long-standing friends of the Fox family, invited the girls into their Rochester home. Immediately convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena, they helped to spread the word among their radical Quaker friends, who became the early core of Spiritualists. In this way appeared the association between Spiritualism and radical political causes, such as abolition, temperance, and equal rights for women.




The Fox girls became famous and their public séances in New York in 1850 attracted notable people including William Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Horace Greeley, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison. They also attracted imitators, or perhaps encouraged people who previously had hidden their gifts. At any rate, during the following few years, hundreds of persons would claim the ability to communicate with spirits. Both Kate and Margaret became well-known mediums, giving séances for hundreds of "investigators," as persons interested in these phenomena liked to call themselves. Many of these early séances were entirely frivolous, where sitters sought insight into "the state of railway stocks or the issue of love affairs," but the religious significance of communication with the deceased soon became apparent. Horace Greeley, the prominent publisher and politician, became a kind of protector for the girls, enabling their movement in higher social circles. But the lack of parental supervision was pernicious, as both of the young girls began to drink wine.




Over the years, sisters Kate and Margaret had developed serious drinking problems. Around 1888 they became embroiled in a quarrel with their sister Leah and other leading Spiritualists, who were concerned that Kate was drinking too much to care properly for her children. At the same time, Margaret, contemplating a return to the Roman Catholic faith, became convinced that her powers were diabolical.
Eager to harm Leah as much as possible, the two sisters traveled to New York City, where a reporter offered $1,500 if they would "expose" their methods and give him an exclusive on the story. Margaret appeared publicly at the New York Academy of Music on October 21, 1888, with Kate present. Before an audience of 2,000, Margaret demonstrated how she could produce – at will – raps audible throughout the theater. Doctors from the audience came on stage to verify that the cracking of her toe joints was the source of the sound.
Margaret recanted her confession in writing in November, 1889, about a year after her toe-cracking exhibition. Kate's first letters back to London after Margaret's exhibition express shock and dismay at her sister's attack on Spiritualism, but she did not publicly take issue with Margaret. Within five years, both sisters died in poverty, shunned by former friends, and were buried in pauper's graves.

The Big Sleep ... On Film

Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These photographs were often the only ones taken of their subjects and much pride and artistry went into them. They were a common aspect of American culture and part of the mourning and memorialization process.

One of the reasons that postmortem photography was popular was due to the high mortality rate of babies and children. Frankly put, people died young. Relatives who had not seen their family member’s children could be sent a picture. As taking pictures weren't the norm, if a child died before a photo had been taken, this would be the only opportunity to get a picture of him or her to relatives. It was also felt that having a last picture of the deceased would quicken the grieving process and pay tribute to the deceased. During this time period, it was common to hang up framed pictures of the dead.

During 1840 to 1880, postmortem photos typically only showed the upper half of the body. This is from the idea that death was the “last sleep.” It was fashionable to make the dead look as if they were merely asleep. Those who used this style would place the body in a chair or sitting on a sofa with books, crosses or rosary beads in the deceased person’s hand. Children were placed in a stroller or cradle.

After 1880 and until about 1915, it became more popular to photograph the entire body of the deceased. These photos were usually taken of the dead in the casket. The change in trends is probably due to the practice of embalming now being possible, as well as the popular use of a lot of flowers placed around the coffin. The body would last longer and the casket setting at a funeral home made for a more aesthetically pleasing photo.

After 1880, it was common to have living family members in the photograph with the deceased. If a child died, he or she may be photographed being held in the mother’s lap. People long to have some record of the child, and that may be the only opportunity. In some photos, pictures of deceased adults can be seen lying in bed with family members sitting on the bed around them. Other families gathered around the coffin for a last photo.

Victorian Death and Mourning Rituals

The Victorians had an obsession with death. The results of their obsession produced some of the most ornate, unusual, and beautiful examples of funerary ritual, mourning ornaments, cemeteries, and sepulchral monuments ever created. The Victorian era (1837-1901) was one of great formality. There were formal rituals for every one of life’s milestones, holidays, birthdays, weddings, but by far the most elaborate rituals were reserved for the funeral.



The Victorian attitude toward death was that it was inevitable. Like any other part of living one must be prepared to die. The mortality rate was quite high in this era. A man in the middle 1800’s could expect to live to between 18 and 38 years old on average. The infant mortality rate was very high, and death was often an unwelcome but expected visitor. This way of thinking enabled one to plan ahead and make well in advance arrangements to have as large and ornate a sending off as one could afford. To the Victorians a “parish funeral” (a funeral paid for out of the parish coffers) or worse yet a “paupers funeral” (a funeral which was non descript and paid for by the state) was the ultimate public humiliation, and was to be avoided at all cost! Every Victorian was accustomed to the many lavish and complex rituals and social expectations of their society, including the elaborate means to which they celebrated death and mourning with a style never equaled. (The Victorian Undertaker 4-5).



DEATH ARRIVES

Death in Victorian society was treated with an elaborate, solemn reverence. In middle to upper class families, the front door would be adorned with a large black, crape (a stiff, black fabric used by the Victorians exclusively for mourning and funerary needs) covered wreath, while inside lights were kept dim, and clocks were stopped. All mirrors were covered with a sheet of black crape lest the spirit of the newly departed become trapped inside the mirror. The deceased would be laid out in a simple wooden coffin, covered with satin and crape, until the newly ordered coffin could be delivered. In cases of a lingering illness, the final coffin may have been ordered well in advance and would be used. According to The Victorian Undertaker, the well-known actress Sarah Bernhardt is said to have kept her coffin with her at all times even having her photograph taken in it (3). The corpse might remain in the house for as long as twelve days surrounded by floral tributes and a lit candle at all times. Funerals were usually held on Sundays since that was not a day of work. A funeral might have to be delayed while arrangements are made and family members gather money, in order to provide the most lavish rites possible.



BLACK BECOMES HER

The family and especially the widow, if the deceased were a married man, would don all black mourning clothes. These clothes were specially made, and were specific to mourning. They would not be worn for any other occasion, and were to be burned after the mourning period. New mourning attire would need to be purchased for every death. Even the style, cut, and types of fabric and trims used on them had complex etiquette rules. Women had the heaviest social burden when it came to mourning. A widow would have to wear what was referred to as deep mourning for the period of at least a year and a day. Everything down to her stockings had to reflect her social status. “If she lifts her skirts from the mud, she must show by her frilled black silk petticoat and plain black stockings her grief has penetrated to her innermost sanctuaries” The Gentlewoman’s Book of Dress (c.1890. qtd. In The Victorian Undertaker 19). After the year and a day, certain other fabrics in dark purples or grays could be included in the wardrobe, but again there were complex social rules that applied. Basically it was not proper for a woman to spend less that two full years in mourning. The socially acceptable rules about what was proper to be worn in the time of mourning also included jewelry.



Primarily, mourning jewelry is made from jet (a deep black coal like stone) both highly polished and dull finish was used on the stone. There were also lower cost substitutes such as French jet (black glass) and Vulcanite or Ebonite (hardened India rubber, mixed with sulfur.) (The Victorian Celebration of Death 201). The metal settings might be of gold or silver but they always had a dull finish. In addition, the Victorians made an art of hair jewelry. In the case of mourning, hair cut from the deceased would be woven into a small braid or flower like twist and enclosed within a broach or woven into a bracelet or necklace to be worn by a grieving family member after the period of deep mourning. Hair of the departed would also be woven into miniature works of art, forming tiny pictures. Lockets and hand made cards containing tiny hair flowers were often made as keepsakes. Aside from ones wedding ring, which was usually covered by black gloves of leather or lace, this type of jewelry was the only acceptable adornment.



NECESSITIES AND COMMEMORATIVES

Wreaths and flower arrangements that included the use of black crape would be ordered quickly, so that they could adorn the house and room where the deceased would lie in state. The abundance of flowers also served the purpose of helping to cover the odor of decay coming from the decomposing corpse.

The family, for all written correspondence would use mourning stationary. A widow would use it the length of her period of mourning. Plain white or cream paper with heavy black embossing, this item was often ordered along with Memorial Cards for the deceased. Commonly used symbols would include, urns, angels, willow trees and ivy. The Victorians commonly used calling cards, something akin to today’s business card, when they would “call on” or visit a home or business. The Memorial card was used in much the same way; the family would hand a memorial card to all that came to pay their respects to the recently departed. Most were quite elaborately embossed and always included the name and date of death of the newly expired. (The Victorian Undertaker 21-22, The Victorian Celebration of Death 202-203). Many sorts of commemorative items might be produced. Handkerchiefs with black borders or teardrop motifs, black fans with ribbons, paperweights, and even hand made picture books which would include “last” photos of family members in death were very typical, and gave the family a lasting memory of those who had gone to eternity. Victorian art centering on the theme of death was both commemorative and symbolic. And the Victorians found nothing morbid about such keepsakes.



THE BIG EVENT

Burial Societies were common. They existed for all levels of society. There were even ethnically specialized societies, such as The Italian Benevolent Society. The members would pay weekly dues, which for the very poor might be only a penny. And upon the death of the member, the society would cover all the costs of a moderate funeral such as befitted the members social standing. (The Victorian Undertaker 10,11). These societies often had large, deep monuments into which members could be interred. This helped defray the cost of a single plot, and sexton to dig the grave. Even the very destitute would willingly go into heavy debt to pay for a funeral, rather than endure the shame of a pauper’s funeral. The idea of Cremation was not popularly accepted until the later part of the nineteenth century. It was thought to be against sacrament and the resurrection of the body. (The Victorian Undertaker 27).

It was customary to hire a livery, preferably a “coach and four” (hearse and team of four dark horses) to transport the celebrated deceased through the streets of the town and down to the cemetery gates. Mourners, including the family, would follow in many cases on foot. Upper class funerals would often have family and guests transported to the cemetery in small black carriages, with black curtains drawn closed. Everyone in the procession would be draped in black. Men in tall black top hats with scarves of black crape, women in their finest mourning gowns, with shawls of black and large, black hats covered with black crape and lace. The walking entourage would include “mutes” (hired professional mourners) who would carry tall polls decorated with yards of draped black crape. Following the mutes would be a man carrying a “featherboard”, which was a huge tall display of dyed black ostrich feathers. The number of mutes and featherboards in a funeral was usually an indication of the wealth of the family of the departed. A large upper class funeral might have as many as fourteen to twenty mutes in the procession. A funeral could never be too ostentatious. (The Victorian Undertaker 3,12, The Victorian Celebration of Death 195). Then came the hearse. The horses would be adorned with headdresses of tall black plumes also made of ostrich feathers. In some cases the horses would be dusted with coal dust to give their coats a dull, deep black finish. The best hearses would have glass panel sides to allow the gathering crowds of onlookers a peek inside at the coffin. (The Victorian Celebration of Death 205).


THE COFFIN

The coffin was often made of lead or wood. Wood coffins might be of elm or mahogany. Metal trim and moldings made of pressed tin would be applied to dress them up, and metal handles inserted for carrying. Great care was taken it the appearance of a coffin. Even if it was a less expensive model, the presentation was such that it could appear to be the finest as it passed through town on its way to the gravesite.

The lead coffin came into being due to the Victorian family’s concern that after interment, the grave would be opened and the body removed to be sold in the black market to medical schools. This was a common practice in the Victorian era. Bodies obtained legally were scarce, and private doctors as well as medical schools were in need of cadavers for medical research and anatomy study. The profession of grave robbing could be quite lucrative in the right part of the city. Lead coffins would be sealed shut against such an invasion. And it was in this era that the practice of digging the grave at least six feet deep began, as further protection against would be grave robbers. (The Bedside Book of Death 53-83).


FEARS

The fear of being buried prematurely is one that has been shared by all humans since recorded history. The Victorians were no exception. There were many well-known stories about the newly deceased suddenly waking up at their wake or in their coffin ready for burial. When the famous Les Innocents Cemetery in Paris, France was moved from the center of the city to its outskirts, a large number of coffins were found to contain skeletons lying on their fronts. Some were found with hands up in front of them, as though they were trying to push the coffin open.

These fears prompted some individuals to create elaborate alarm systems, to enable the “corpse” to alert the living that they had indeed only been asleep. Such devices would enable a person mistakenly buried, to ring a bell above ground using a pull rope that had been wound around their wrist, fed up through a hole in the coffin, and run through a hollow tube to an attached bell. Similarly, a hollow tube would be positioned into a hole in the coffin top above the face of the deceased. If they should awake after burial and begin calling out, it was assumed they would be heard by the cemetery sexton or nearby mourners, and could be rescued from the clutches of death. (The Bedside Book of Death 15-35).


There was a young man at Nunhead

Who awoke in his coffin of lead

‘It was cosy enough,’

He remarked in a huff,

‘But I wasn’t aware I was dead.’


Anonymous Victorian limerick (The Bedside Book of Death 25).





THE CEMETERY

The Victorians viewed the cemetery as a place for both the living and the dead. It was not uncommon for cemeteries to be crowded on weekends, especially on Sundays. Families having picnics, folks taking a stroll, or taking the baby in a carriage for some fresh air. The cemetery was a favorite place for young unmarried couples to spend some alone time, while well chaperoned in the midst of a crowd.

Huge garden cemeteries became all the rage both in the United States and abroad. One of the most notable garden cemeteries upon whose design and landscape many American garden cemeteries were based is the splendid Pere-Lachaise, in France. Pere-Lachaise is home to the monuments of many a famous historical figure, but it is renowned for its landscape and garden architecture the world over. In more recent times, it has become known as the final resting-place for its most visited tenant, Jim Morrison, late of the American rock band The Doors. (The Last Great Necessity 99-109).

If nothing else, the Victorians specialized in the ornate, and they did it unlike anyone else. Around 1855, American cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio, with its Spring Grove Cemetery, began to build new and redesign some existing cemeteries into huge memorial garden parks. They became places of tranquility and beauty. Landscaping, walk ways, and even the addition of streams or lakes helped to transform the parks from just a place for the slumbering dead, to a place for the living to commune and feel close to those who were interred there. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York; Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are but a few existing examples of some of Americas most ornate Victorian garden parks. (The Last Great Necessity 101-103, Victorian Cemetery Art v-xiii).

It was during the Victorian era that grave markers and monuments became so ornate and detailed, that they are considered classic works of sculpture today. Victorians had a taste for the ornate; the more fluff and detail the better. Unlike the relatively plain flat markers of today, Victorian grave markers were created to be permanent, loving, detailed tributes to the dead. Markers in honor of the dead had a wide variety of designs. Among the better known are the classic arch, the cross, human figures, wreaths and angels. On many of these markers the artistic craftsmanship is exquisite. Before the 1970’s most of the carvings were done by hand using classic sculpting tools and techniques. Today modern artists use computer aided lasers to carve the intricate monuments. Classical styles in art abound in some of the larger cemeteries. In addition to the more classic designs, Victorians often used ornate symbolism such as the upside down torch- signifying life extinguished, the broken column- representing a life cut short, tree stumps- signaling life cut off, open and closed books -to represent life as a story unfinished.


KEEPSAKES

Gravestone rubbing first came into being as a way to keep a memento of a deceased loved one. Much less expensive than a photograph, even the less well to do could obtain this simple keepsake using paper and a flat piece of charcoal. The work would be displayed framed and hung in the home just as a photo of a family member might be mounted in a place of honor. Today, gravestone rubbings are taken mainly for their artistic beauty. Victorian grave markers produce the most beautiful rubbings, due to their ornate designs.

A Victorian having a glimpse of our modern death rituals today, would most likely be taken back at the lack of personal family attention given to the corpse. Photos of a loved one in death and locks of their hair are considered morbid and unthinkable in today’s society. And while it is still fairly common to see family and friends dressed in black mourning on the day of the funeral, the strict rules of Victorian society and etiquette in regard to death and mourning have been all but forgotten. Very few cemeteries today allow the grand sepulchral monuments of the Victorian era, instead allowing only landscape flush stone or metal markers.

Fortunately for taphophiles such as myself, the grand memorial park cemeteries have endured the twentieth century, standing as a permanent, living reminders of a complicated, grand, and spectacular age gone by.


© Wendy 2004