June 30, 2025 • 54 mins
Would you ever keep a photo of a loved one taken after they died? Or wear a bracelet made from their hair?
In this episode of Spirit Speakeasy, we’re exploring some of the most haunting—and surprisingly heartfelt—mourning practices from the past.
From Victorian post-mortem photography and death masks, to hair jewelry and family hair wreaths displayed in living rooms, these tangible tokens of grief may seem strange by today’s standards… but they once carried deep spiritual, emotional, and cultural meaning.
💀 You’ll learn about:
— Why photographing the dead was once considered an act of love
— How human hair became a powerful symbol of remembrance
— What death masks revealed (and preserved)
— The oddly beautiful tradition of hanging woven hair art in the home
— How these forgotten practices might help us better understand grief today
✨ Whether you find them creepy, beautiful, or both… these keepsakes remind us that grief has always found a way to take shape.
Show Notes:
Select Sources & Further Reading
Photography:
• The Burns Archive – Historical post-mortem photography
https://www.burnsarchive.com
Mourning Jewelry & Hair Art:
• Relics of Death in Victorian Literature and Culture – Deborah Lutz
• V&A Museum – Mourning Jewelry Collection
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/mourning-jewellery
• National Museum of Funeral History
https://www.nmfh.org
• Strange Remains – “The Hairy Art of Victorian Mourning Jewelry”
https://www.strangeremains.com/?p=1016
Death Masks:
• Britannica – “Death mask”
https://www.britannica.com/art/death-mask
• Atlas Obscura – “Why Death Masks Were Once All the Rage”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/death-masks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:01):
Joy, hey, beautiful soul, welcome to spirit
speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni,joyful medium. I'm a working
psychic medium, energy healerand spiritual gifts mentor. This
podcast is like a seat at thetable in a secret club, but with
mediums, mystics and thespiritual luminaries of our
time. So come behind the velvetropes with me and see inside my
(00:24):
world as I chat insider stylewith profoundly gifted souls, we
go deep, share juicy stories,laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be
a speakeasy without greatinsider secrets and tips. You
might even learn that you havesome gifts of your own. So step
inside the spirit. Speak Easy.
Hey, beautiful soul, welcomeback, or welcome in for another
(00:47):
episode of spirit speakeasy. Onthis week's episode, we are
gonna be talking about hauntingkeepsakes, strange morning
tokens from the past. So in thisepisode, we're exploring some of
the strangest and most intimatemourning or grieving rituals
from the past that may even beconsidered taboo by today's
(01:12):
standards, including Victorianpost mortem Photography, hair
jewelry, death masks and evenfamily hair wreaths that were
displayed in the living room. Sothese unusual forms of
remembrance may seem eerie bytoday's standards, but they once
held deep, spiritual, emotionaland cultural meaning. So are
(01:35):
they creepy, beautiful, or both.
You decide, let's get into it.
But before we dive in to themain episode, I want to quickly
share where the inspiration forthis episode came from. I know
you might be thinking, okay,Joy. This is a bit of a strange
topic, so I wanted to sharewhere I got this little nudge,
(01:57):
this inspiration for thisepisode, and a little nudge from
spirit that I got to keep goingwith it, because I wasn't so
sure if this episode was goingto make it to you guys. So I was
listening to a podcast that Ioften listen to by Marc Maron
called WTF podcast, and hehappened to be just talking at
(02:17):
the beginning of the episode andmentioned post mortem
photography from the Victorianera, those eerie Yet oddly
touching portraits taken ofpeople after they pass away.
Like I said, especially back inVictorian times. I never heard
of this before, and I foundmyself wondering, were there
(02:38):
other unusual and maybe eventaboo ways that people have used
in the past to, you know, keepor create trinkets or remember
their loved ones? Becauseobviously you might expect in my
work as a medium, I'm oftenhearing really creative and
unique ways that people areexploring to memorialize their
(02:59):
loved ones. So this, how peoplewere memorialized or remembered
in the past, was just reallyintriguing to me. And I was
wondering maybe, what have welost or forgotten or shifted
away from in how we grieve? So Istarted digging, and wow,
Victorian morning jewelry led meto hair art, which led me to
(03:20):
death masks and on and on. Themore I found, the more I
couldn't look away. But I'll behonest, there was a point in
doing the research for thisepisode where I almost didn't
create the actual episode. Ithought to myself, Is this too
weird? Is this too dark? Willthe pod squad think this is just
too morbid and not the kind ofthing we explore here on spirit
(03:44):
speakeasy. So I was sitting withit. I had been doing some
research here in the officewhere I'm recording today, and I
was driving the short drive hometo my place. And as I was just
pondering it, I kind of put thethoughts to my guides, and was
wondering, you know, with my ownheart and soul, should I be
doing this episode or not? Ireally wasn't sure whether I
(04:06):
should keep going or just let itbe something I'd researched for
myself quietly for my owninformation. And then, as often
happens, spirit stepped in. Iwas driving home, like I said,
listening to a totally unrelatedpodcast called we can do hard
things with Glennon Doyle, AbbyWambach and Amanda Doyle, and
their guest was the amazing,beautiful writer suleika julad.
(04:29):
They were talking about writingand life and creative process,
but as they were starting intothe episode, almost out of
nowhere, suleika Gilad mentionedVictorian morning jewelry just
casually as they were talkingabout security blankets that
like little kids use, and shementioned this Victorian morning
(04:52):
jewelry that I had just beenresearching and asking, was this
episode appropriate? It. In theintro of the episode, it wasn't
even the focus of like, whatthey were talking about. It just
something that came up, and inthat moment, I knew that was my
confirmation. That was my signyou this community, our pod
squad are available for thisconversation. So here we are
(05:15):
exploring some of the strangestand most sacred ways people have
honored their deceased lovedones and what they still might
teach us about grief, memory andconnection. So let's get into
it. The first thing on my listthat I wanted to chat about is
this post mortem photography,which was a Victorian tradition
(05:38):
of remembrance. So post morningphotography, also known as
morning photography, and aswe're talking through this
episode, it's morning like M O,U R n, to mourn, to grieve,
mourning, rather than like inthe morning part of the day. So
just want to throw that outthere. So morning photography,
or memorial portraiture, as it'ssometimes called, was the
(06:00):
practice of photographing therecently deceased, typically in
like, the 19th and early 20thcentury. This was especially
common, I learned during theVictorian era. So essentially,
like 1837 to like 1901 ish andinto the Edwardian era with a
strong presence in both Europeand North America. So I'm going
(06:20):
to give you a little bit of ahistorical context, and I'm
going to break it down what thisis and how it was used
originally. This practice beganshortly after the invention of
something called thedaguerreotype in 1839 so what is
a dig? I'm sure I'm saying thisright or wrong. Rather, what is
(06:41):
a daguerreotype? Daguerreotype,pronounced daguerreotype, I'm
saying it wrong. It's not acamera, but it almost looks like
a camera. It acts similar to acamera, but it's not actually a
camera. It's a very earlyversion of the photographic
process invented by someonenamed Louis or Louis Daguerre so
(07:04):
that's why it is called thedaguerreotype. So here's a quick
breakdown of what this actuallyis. It's a produced single,
highly detailed image on asilver coated copper plate. So
before they actually had film,they used these copper plates
coated in silver, and thisdaguerreotype produced a single,
(07:28):
highly detailed image. Theprocess required a very long
exposure time and very stillsubjects at this time, because
of this long exposure for theimage to be captured. Many
people didn't have photographsof living people because they
couldn't stand or sit or bestill long enough for this long
(07:49):
shutter window exposure tocapture the image. So because of
this, it was widely it was itwas the first widely used
photographic method and sparkedthe popularity of portrait
photography, including this postmortem photography. These images
were often kept in decorativecases with velvet lining or tiny
(08:12):
latches treasured heirlooms fromthat time, and it was
prevalently popular, I guess, inthe late 18, you know, mid to
late 1800s and early 1900s andfor many families, this would be
the only photograph ever takenof their loved one. Again, not
only was it this long exposureprocess that made it hard for
(08:36):
people to be still, butphotography was still really
expensive and rare, so a postmortem image became a really
special occasion photograph andan incredibly treasured
keepsake. So what happens tothis practice as photography
becomes more accessible and theculture around death changes,
(08:58):
especially after World War One.
The practice of this post mortemphotography kind of fades from
mainstream use, but I was stillcurious about it. So what I
learned is that a lot of thispost mortem photography, they
would pose the person, thecrossed over, loved one, to
(09:19):
appear as though they weresleeping. Especially, I learned
with infants who had crossedover or children, they were
often posed for this photographyto look as though they were
peacefully sleeping. Sometimesmore for adults, they might be
propped up using like posingstands, or sometimes they would
(09:42):
even place them like seatedamongst the family, like a
family picture, that portraitthat we might think of today,
but they would prop up therecently deceased person amongst
the family sometimes, or evensometimes, they would make them
appear alive using. Somethingcalled Eye retouching on the
photo. So after they created thephoto, they would go back in and
(10:05):
almost like paint on the eyes.
Sometimes for adults, sometimesthe deceased person was
photographed with livingsiblings or spouses or parents,
especially for kids, in thecase, when kids were crossed
over. And another really commonpractice was for them to put
objects on the person or intheir hands or with them. It
(10:27):
would be things, typically likea rosary, like those prayer
beads, rosary beads, or a Bibleor if it was a kid, it might be
like a favorite toy, it might beincluded to really personalize
the image and make it just feeleven more specific to that
person. And again, sometimesthey would have the eyes closed,
(10:49):
resting peacefully. Sometimesthey would have the eyes open,
or go back in and retouch andpaint the eyes open. And this
was supposed to be kind ofsymbolizing the continued
presence or life beyond theveil, living on on the other
side. So it was kind of tosymbolize that. It was the
reason that they decided theseeyes needed to be open or
(11:11):
repainted. So there is somecultural significance here. I
came across this Latin termcalled Memento Mori, remember
you must die. These photographswere seen as a way to process
grief, and not as macabre ordark or depressing. It was
really honoring the soul andhelping to preserve the memory
(11:34):
for the family. So they reallyserved a beautiful purpose, not
a creepy or dark purpose like wemight think of today, and
especially in Catholic andOrthodox traditions, these
images often had spiritualundertones. Sometimes they would
position or put objects to kindof emphasize resurrection or
(11:57):
continued connection with thesoul, and really, in some
communities, a formal postmortem photo was a mark of
respectability or devotion. Soif you were of a status and an
income bracket to be able toafford this, it really just was
(12:17):
a sign of respect and a sign ofdevotion of the family and that
you had a certain status. So itwas really something that was
quite common. And the thing Istarted wondering is, was this
postmortem photography only forthe wealthy? Because I could
imagine that, you know, noteveryone maybe could access
(12:41):
this. So what I learned is it'snot exclusively for the wealthy,
but especially in those earlydays, it was more accessible, I
guess, by the wealthy, and thenas time went on into the 19th
century, as it progressed, Ithink this was available to more
people. So it seemed like in theearly years of this, which would
(13:03):
have been like 1840s and 50swhen the daguerreotypes first
emerged, yeah, they wererelatively expensive and mostly
common among upper and middleclass, which back then would
have been quite wealthy in theseearly images they needed like a
specialist photographer, becausethis is an early invention,
(13:24):
right? So not everyone evenpossessed one of these machines
to create the image or knew howto use it. And not only did it
require a specialist to use theequipment, but it took really
expensive materials. Remember, Imentioned that it was created on
silver plated copper. So thatcopper was expensive. They had
(13:44):
to coat it with silver, whichwas expensive. And the the
because of this long exposuretime and the way this is
created, it it was a really longsession to have someone come
over and create this specialpostmortem photography. So that
was in the beginning of this,right, 1840s and 50s in the
later years, kind of 1860s and80s and beyond into the into the
(14:06):
1900s newer photographicprocesses started to emerge,
something called ambrotypes andtintypes. So there's different
you know, as photography grows,just like anything. Even in our
current world, as technologyexpands and we get a little bit
more technology, bettertechnology, new types emerge,
(14:27):
photography became much moreaffordable and accessible even
to working class families. Sobelieve it or not, there used to
be traveling photographers. Iknow often we think about back
in the day there being liketraveling snake oil sales
people, or like tincture tonicsales people. Well, there are
(14:47):
also traveling photographers,and sometimes small studios that
offered Memorial photos at alower price, so someone might be
coming through town with theirphoto. Equipment and offer to do
this for a lower price, kind oflike today, only is my guess,
and sometimes some of them wouldeven offer payment plans. How
interesting is this for manylower income families, post
(15:11):
mortem photography might be theonly image they ever have of
this loved one, so they wouldreally prioritize it. So even if
you had a lower income as afamily, they would save and they
would really be even if it meanta big financial sacrifice, they
would really prioritize havingthis image created of their
person. So what's the bottomline here? While it began as a
(15:35):
luxury, this post mortemphotography evolved into a
widely practiced and deeplycherished form of remembrance
across all socioeconomicclasses, especially during the
height of its popularity in theVictorian era. How interesting
is this? I mean, I know today wethink like, I mean, you don't
(15:56):
really take pictures at funeralsor anything, right? That would
be totally taboo. But there wasonce a time where, you know,
today, I think we take forgranted how we all have cameras
in our phones and so manycameras and taking selfies and
pictures of anything all thetime. But there was a time where
you might not even ever have aphoto of someone. So you could
(16:17):
imagine what a big, significantMemorial this, this was to be
able to have and create, and itwas a really special thing back
then. So and again, I will linkso many resources in the show
notes for this, because, like Isaid, this was a bit of a deep
dive research for me, just formy own curiosity. The next item,
(16:38):
or way of memorializing that Icame to learn about was
something called Morning jewelryand hair art. They're considered
woven remembrances of what wasso what is mourning jewelry and
hair art? It's a lot what itsounds like in the 18th and
especially in the 19th century,it was common to incorporate a
(17:01):
lock of a deceased person's, youknow, loved one's hair into
jewelry, art or keepsakes, likea tangible Memorial, something
you can hold. This is mostcommon in Ireland, Scotland,
Victorian England and the US,which I thought was also really
interesting. So what are thecommon forms of this? I know
(17:25):
sometimes, even now, in presenttime, we think of keeping a lock
of someone's hair, especiallylike in a baby book, we might
have a lock of hair from baby'sfirst haircut, type of a thing.
But I don't know really manypeople that. I know a few people
that do, but I don't know manypeople that think of taking hair
from a crossed over loved onebefore they are cremated or
(17:49):
buried or prepared for the nextpart, but it apparently was at
one time incredibly common andthought of as one of the most
intimate keepsakes. This isperhaps the most fascinating and
tactile element. But they diduse human hair from deceased
people, and often this hair, ifthey weren't like a jeweler,
(18:14):
right? This hair was verycommonly taken braided or even
woven or maybe artisticallyshaped into things like flowers,
hearts, really decorative,special knots, or even wreaths,
like the kind you might put fora holiday or springtime on your
front door, like a wreath. Itwas often these items were taken
(18:36):
and placed under like a cloche,like a glass topper, just to
kind of keep them safe. Sosometimes they were set under
glass containers. Sometimes theywere set into glass lockets or
rings, or like a pin, a brooch,or like a pendant of some kind.
And for people who had the meansto do even more elaborate
(18:58):
things, hair was used to createbracelets, sometimes chains,
like necklaces, or even theywould use the hair and make
frames. And they would frame artlike wall art, art to hang on
the wall with a frame made outof a loved one's hair, which I
know seems really taboo bytoday's standard, but I just
(19:20):
thought this was so interesting.
And for some people, I guess ifyou had enough hair, maybe there
were these things, hair wreaths,which is just what it sounds
like. They often will put themin a shadow box, kind of like a
raised framed box, but theywould make a wreath or a ring
out of hair, and they wouldincorporate, sometimes in some
(19:42):
traditions, hair of many familymembers over time, so kind of
like a family tree or a lineagemade into a wreath with hair. So
they would, you know, over thegenerations, they would collect
hair from each loved one thatcrossed over. And they would be
incorporated or braided intothis family piece of art, this
(20:05):
family heirloom. Okay, why hair?
So that might be the one of thefirst questions you have. It was
one of the first questions Ihad. Oh, as we know, hair
doesn't decay in the same waythat other things do. So it
became more than just a way ofremembering, it became more than
just a tangible item or tangiblepart of that person. It became a
(20:27):
symbol of immortality andeternal love. It provided a
physical, tangible, touchablelink to the loved one,
especially meaningful in timesof long mourning. So they really
thought of hair as equaling themeaning of eternal because hair
(20:48):
doesn't break down and decay.
It's really a lasting part ofthe loved one, physical and
symbolically. So there's thisconnection in this practice,
betweenthe person that they love and
moving beyond death so touchingor wearing the person's hair
(21:10):
kept their memory literallyclose to someone's body, right?
Okay, I know this might seemodd, but we're going to go even
deeper into it. So it was one ofthe customs of the time. It was
part of mourning etiquette,especially in Victorian society,
people were encouraged to usevisual displays of grief and
(21:33):
mourning and hair. Art was bothemotionally significant and
fashionable, which I know soundsreally strange by today's
standards. Did you know thatQueen Victoria herself wore
morning jewelry with PrinceAlbert's hair after his passing?
I did not know this. Thepractice was especially common
(21:55):
in England and America from the1800s to the early 1900s and I'm
sure you're not surprised tolearn this, but entire
businesses were created thatspecialized in morning jewelry,
and they were called Morningjewelers who handcrafted these
intimate keepsakes. Of course,I'm sure some of them are
(22:16):
handcrafted by the familiesthemselves, but in true
entrepreneurial spirit, somepeople felt like, Oh, I could
provide this service for others,and made businesses where they
were hair specific jewelers. Sothere are some common forms of
this morning jewelry. There werethings like rings, as you might
imagine, and they often engravedthe rings with the loved one's
(22:39):
name, or perhaps their angeldate, is what we call it now,
their death date, their crossingdate. Some contained miniature
portraits, or like a miniatureportrait of the person inside
the ring, or hair inside thering. They also would sometimes
use lockets or pendants. I thinkeveryone knows what a locket is.
(23:02):
I don't see them very often, butit's like a pendant that opens.
So lockets would contain alittle lock of hair or sometimes
a tiny photograph or a tinyMemorial drawing of the person,
or even a little inscription andmemory of they also made
brooches, which is like adecorative pin that people would
wear. And they actually wouldform the hair into shapes like a
(23:25):
tree, particularly a weepingwillow, which, if you don't know
what that is, that's my favoritetree. It's the tree that has the
the branches that kind of hangdown. They're really beautiful.
So sometimes they would take thehair and form it into the shape
of a weeping willow tree, oreven an urn like shape it into
(23:46):
the shape of a vessel an urn.
And they would actually pin thehair on to themselves like a
brooch. So the actual hairitself would become the brooch.
They would make bracelets andnecklaces, and this would be
more like it, really intricatelywoven hair to be used as the
(24:08):
entire chain itself, not just aslike a centerpiece, not just as
like something hanging off thechain, but they would actually
braid the hair to make thebracelet or the necklace itself.
There were some other types ofsymbology for morning jewelry.
Victorian pieces often usedeeply coded symbols. So even
(24:30):
when they used a symbol insteadof like a photograph or a date,
the symbols had meaning andrepresentation in Victorian
time. So they used URNs A lot. Iknow today we really think of
urns as like what you would putsomeone's cremains in, but they
used actually the shape of theurn, either in art or in this
(24:53):
jewelry a lot. And the urnreally was thought to symbolize
the soul's vessel. So in thiscontext. Text urns and mourning
jewelry are symbolic, notfunctional. So it's not like
they're making a tiny urn andputting ashes in there. They're
just using the shape or theimage of the urn to represent
the vessel for the soul thatwould take them into the
(25:13):
afterlife. They used them intiny decorative motifs, and
often engraved them or sculptedthem into rings and brooches and
lockets. So while you might doone with hair, you could also
just do one in the shape of anurn, and that would also be
considered mourning jewelry.
They used the weeping willowtree a lot because it
represented sorrow and mourning.
(25:35):
They actually used skulls quitefrequently in artistry, or the
image of an hourglass, whichboth of those symbolize
mortality and time. They usedeyes so they used them in the
jewelry, sculpted or carved. Andthe eyes sometimes called lovers
eyes in little miniature form,they really represented eternal
(26:00):
watchfulness, or eternal love,like that one is that person's
eternally watching over you, orlike the love is eternal with
the eyes, if you see snakes in acircle, so kind of like a snake
swallowing its own tail. Thatsymbolizes eternity, it can also
symbolize life, death andrebirth. So they would often use
(26:21):
that in mourning jewelry.
Sometimes they used black enamelor something called jet, which
is like a fossilized dark wood,and this symbolized being solemn
and being in grief and mourning.
So it's really interesting thatnot only do they use symbolic
(26:41):
ingredients right the hairitself. But they're often using
symbolic carvings and images torepresent these different
aspects of mourning, and some ofthem were made from this jet
material that I mentioned, whichis like a fossilized wood. They
really prized that for itscolor. It came in this really
(27:03):
like deep matte black that theywould use for a lot of this
jewelry. They would sometimesuse onyx or black enamel, which
I think most of you know, onyxis a black gemstone. Gold was
often used. This might either be14 or 18 karat gold, or it might
just be gold tone and symbolizedwith black accents. They often
(27:25):
used glass in these pieces ofjewelry, especially for sealing
in hair, so putting hair underthe glass, or like pouring the
pouring the glass over the hairto really just seal it in there
and keep it occasionally backthen, they used ivory, which we
don't use today. They sometimesused seed pearls, which are
(27:48):
pearls that are more in theshape of a seed, more of an oval
shape, and they use these tosymbolically represent tears. Or
they sometimes also used bogoak, especially in Irish pieces,
morning jewelry was really notjust about grief. It was about
remembering and honoring andexpressing continued connection
(28:12):
to the dearly departed, and itactually followed strict morning
etiquette. Leave it to ourlovely British friends to have
etiquette for everything. Sothere was strict morning
etiquette back there, back then,and the jewelry was often worn
during a specific period ofmourning, like deep mourning,
(28:34):
which would be the initialperiod, or something that they
called half mourning, which wasafter a period of time. So they
had all these different reallyinteresting cultural ways of
having etiquette for grieving,having proper times for
grieving. And these pieces wereactually also made as heirlooms.
So they were made to be passeddown, especially those made with
(28:58):
hair or with that family hair,which we're going to talk about
next that contained, you know,strands of hair multiple
generations. Those were intendedto be passed down generation
after generation, like a specialheirloom piece, which I know
sounds really interesting. I betsome of these exist in the world
today. They do. Actually, youcan in the if you want to check
(29:18):
the links in the description,you will see some of these
images. There's lots ofinteresting images. So they
really did a lot of differenttypes of jewelry, and sometimes
they even did cremation ashjewelry. So I know we've talked
(29:40):
about hair and the way thatcertain symbols are used in this
jewelry. But another way thatthey did it, besides just the
hair jewelry, another type ofthis morning jewelry, which
actually exists today in adifferent way, is this cremation
ash jewelry. So they actuallytook ashes and. Transformed them
(30:00):
into glass beads, like beadsthemselves to be beaded on a
strand. It could be resinlocklets or lockets. So they
would put the resin from theashes inside a locket or a
little vessel that they wouldwear like a pendant. And today,
you know, they make diamonds,which we'll talk about in a
future episode, some artistscreate custom pieces that would
(30:24):
even include the ashes mixedinto the paint and then painted
as artwork, right? So there'slots of different ways to do
this and to create into paintedjewelry. They would paint some
of the, you know, ashes. Theymix the ashes in the paint,
paint it on the jewelry, orpaint it into a portrait, and
then sometimes they do that hairframe, right? So it really just
(30:47):
offered a tactile, wearableconnection for those grieving,
and were often designed toreflect the personality or the
passions of our dearly departedloved one in whatever instance
it was for you. Okay, I want togo a little bit more into this
hair wreath. I know I glossedover it, but this is a
(31:09):
significant one, all of itsowns. I want to dive into this a
little bit for you. And pleaseexcuse my giggles. I don't mean
to be irreverent. I found all ofthis incredibly fascinating. And
really it was very interesting,but I just know that I can
imagine, I some of you I knowwho listen to the pod.
(31:30):
Obviously, some of you I don't,but I can imagine your faces as
I'm talking about wreaths madeout of generational hair. I can
just imagine some of you andwhat your what your expressions
might look like. So if morningjewelry wasn't unusual enough,
imagine this. You walk into aVictorian receiving parlor, like
(31:51):
a kind of a formal living room,and there hanging on the wall is
a framed giant wreath. And asyou look closer, you realize
it's made out of hair, and thenyou become aware that it's human
hair. Sometimes it's just fromone person, but more often, like
I mentioned, it's a wholefamily, so almost used as like a
(32:12):
family tree, literally wovenfrom the strands of hair of our
ancestors. And sometimes theywould actually also use hair of
living people, like if theywanted to just incorporate them
into this family tree, thisfamily wreath, they didn't
necessarily have to be crossedover for them to do it, but they
(32:32):
often would use hair aftersomeone had crossed over. So
what were these hair wreaths?
Hair wreaths are large,intricate wall hangings made
from braided, looped or evensometimes flower shaped loops of
human hair. Usually they mountedthem on velvet or some sort of
parchment paper and then framedand put glass on top. So like a
(32:56):
like a framed piece of art. Buthere's the twist. They weren't
always just from the deceased,as I mentioned, many were made
from the hair of multiple familymembers, both alive and passed
on. And they even carefullylabeled and arranged the
different parts of hair likebranches sometimes, so almost
(33:17):
like making the portrait, thepicture itself, into an actual
shape of a tree, and then theywould label the branches with
each person's hair so they couldidentify who it belonged to,
almost like scrapbooking, butwith hair, most common shapes
were like I said, this treeoften, a common shape was a
(33:41):
horseshoe pointing upwardstowards heaven, symbolizing the
cycle of life. Other designsoften included symbolic forms,
again, like willow tree,branches, roses, forget me,
knots, all made from hair. Andreally, this got me thinking,
this might be strange what Ithought of, but I was thinking
(34:01):
of the time that this took, theprecision, the really somber
hours It must have taken tospend weaving these remembrances
into something so fragile and sopermanent at the same time, I
can only imagine, If you've everseen, if you've ever been to
like arts and crafts museums andseen tapestries that are woven
(34:24):
by hand, or braids and knotsthat are created by hand with
thread, just imagine how muchmore challenging that is to
create these intricate designsBy weaving or braiding hair that
just seems really fragile andreally delicate for the artisan
to create. And unlike jewelry,these weren't worn or hidden.
(34:50):
These wreaths are publiclydisplayed, and often in the
family's front room, like thereceiving room, where they would
invite company. Guests, theywould have this wreath or this
picture this, thisrepresentation made with family
hair and in Victorian society,this wasn't considered creepy or
(35:12):
strange or taboo at all. It wasactually considered respectful
and even thought of asfashionable. So lots of people
had it, and it was thought of aslike, oh, in fashion, if you did
these pieces reflected reverencefor ancestry, for lineage, for
the blending of new life andreleasing those that have come
(35:36):
before us, and really served asa bit of a family archive in
some instances. So some includedhand stitched name tags, like I
was saying, for each for eachbraid of hair, like for each
person, whether it was like oneperson's hair made into a braid
of a tree and then anotherbranch, they would label each
(35:58):
one with whose hair that was.
Sometimes it would includethings like the passing date.
Sometimes they would usedifferent colored ribbons or
different ribbons instead oflike a name tag to signify each
different person's strands ofhair, just to identify it again,
like a family archive of sorts,others featured a photo in the
(36:22):
middle, or maybe like a quote,or sometimes a spiritual verse,
a Bible verse, maybe ahandwritten dedication. It's
really strange, maybe to thinkof memorializing our family on a
wall in this way, but in an erabefore photographs were common,
it made sense, and a lot ofpeople did some sort of sewing
(36:44):
or weaving or handicraft. Backthen, hair was lasting. It was
familiar. It's kind of aspersonal as we can get, and we
now know hair even carries DNA.
So even though it might seem alittle bit odd or taboo by
today's standards, you can seewhy it was so prominently
featured and why it was socommon for people to have so I
(37:08):
also was wondering, like, howwere these made? I know I talked
about the intricacy and howdifficult this must have been,
but I was wondering if this wassort of like the photography
where they'd have travelingsales people come around and
offer to braid any family hairyou had around. I just wasn't
(37:28):
sure how I mean, and please knowI mean all of this with the most
love and respect. But how werethese made? So oftentimes,
because so many people knew howto weave or braid they these
pieces were done by the familymembers themselves, as you might
imagine, more often, women inthe family. But they also did
have professional hair workartists. Not only did they have
(37:52):
professional artists, but astime went on, they also had
instructions for making thesetypes of artistry, and they
would publish them in likewomen's magazines and grief
guides and things I don't know.
(38:13):
I know we don't think ofeverything as online. Now. We
don't tend to read lots ofmagazines. When I was a kid,
there would be magazines at thecheckout stand or maybe at a
store. And some of thosemagazines might have patterns or
like a like a dress pattern or aquilt pattern. These had hair
work patterns, grieving hair,hair remembrance or family hair
(38:34):
archive, grieving patterns. Andit was, it was that common that
they were publishing patternsand instructions of how to do
these into women's magazines.
The hair was, of course,cleaned. I learned that they
often even boiled it, just toreally, like, make sure it was
sanitized and cleaned. And thenthey ultimately, eventually
started weaving them around,like thin wire, almost like
(38:58):
floral wire or jewelry typewire, very thin wire, so they
could shape them a little bitmore easily or seamlessly.
Sometimes they would even braidthem or weave them around silk
thread so that they could formthese really intricate floral
designs and patterns. These werereally actual art pieces, craft
(39:19):
pieces, if you will. So they'rethey're incredibly elaborate in
some cases, especially as timegoes on and and these are widely
shared patterns, and people haveaccess to this wire and to silk
thread. So it really does growand expand into a beautiful art
form. And it does help to knowthat the hair was cleaned and
(39:42):
and treated with love and care.
And again, this was often done,even though there are these,
these artisans that do it. Thisis often done by grieving family
members themselves as part oftheir grieving process. It
really kind of blurs the line alittle bit between. Crafts and
ritual, between art andremembrance, between the
(40:06):
physical body and the sacrednext steps, right? So I thought
that the hair art, the wreathsand the hair framed glassed
pictures were just sointeresting, especially knowing
that they often did the portraitor the picture from multiple
(40:27):
people's hair and even labeledthem. How interesting, right? So
after I felt like I thoroughlyexhausted understanding the hair
wreaths, the next thing that Imoved on to is something called
a death mask, and it's oftenthought of a way of remembering
(40:49):
the face the structure, theinstead of a portrait, it's a
mask of someone's face. Soimagine that you're standing in
a museum, and you'll come faceto face with a mask. It's not
carved or sculpted, but it'smolded directly from the face of
someone who has just passedaway, every wrinkle, every line,
(41:10):
every crease, every part oftheir final expression,
perfectly preserved. This iswhat's called a death mask, and
it's one of the most intimateand quite honestly unsettling
forms of remembrance in history.
Again, links in show notes. Whatis a death mask? A death mask is
a physical cast, usually madefrom wax or plaster, and it's
(41:31):
taken of the face of a deceasedperson, usually newly deceased,
typically within hours of theirpassing, it captures the
individual's true likeness,sometimes down to even like the
texture of their skin and theplacement of their eyelashes.
Believe it or not, what strikesme about death masks is how
(41:53):
deeply personal they are. You'renot just remembering someone or
having like a photograph of themor a lock of their hair, you're
literally preserving their face,not just a portrait or a
photograph, not a painting, butactually them as they were in
that final moment of stillness.
(42:14):
So this practice actually wasdone many places and across lots
of time, not just not just smallperiods of time, like in those
Victorian traditions we weretalking about, this actually was
done even in ancient Egypt. AndMycenae Egyptians created golden
(42:35):
funeral masks, likeI know, when I was a kid at the
science museum in Boston, we hadKing Tut and the masks and the
remains. So if you have everseen any of these, you know
Egyptian masks. That's how theywere often done, not as a
likeness, but as a spiritualtool. They were meant to help
guide the soul of the crossedover person to the afterlife and
(42:58):
to protect their identity. Thisalso was done in ancient Greece.
Death masks were made ofhammered gold. Sometimes they
would lay the gold over the faceand kind of hammer it to make
the sculpture right over thedeceased person's face in the
burial chamber. And this is moresymbolic than personal. This in
(43:20):
ancient Greece was not so muchabout the soul's journey or it
was more about the soul'sjourney. Not so much for
preservation or grief for thefamily. This was more about the
afterlife and the belief of thesoul needing to be identified in
the afterlife and needing to beset properly on its journey. So
that is sort of the tradition inancient Egypt and Greece. But in
(43:42):
the Renaissance and VictorianEurope, in medieval, Medieval
and Renaissance Europe, thesedeath masks began serving
artistic and genealogicalpurposes, not just afterlife
purposes. And again, by the 18thand 19th century, they became
common for famous figures,artists, philosophers, even
(44:04):
royalty, would have these masksmade. They were used as
references for portraiture,like, if they're gonna, you
know, a king passes away, andlater they want to paint a
portrait of him, they would usethis mask to make sure they had
a very good likeness, forexample, and they would use them
for not just to paint aportrait, but to do a sculpture.
And in some cases, they wouldeven use these masks for
(44:27):
scientific study. Howinteresting, right? You might be
surprised to learn, as I was,that there are some famous death
masks made Napoleon Bonaparte,his death mask was cast just
hours after his death on StHelena. How crazy is that?
Ludwig von Beethoven in 1827there is a mask of him. His mask
(44:51):
is still studied and displayedtoday, revealing lots of stress
lines. In his later years, it issaid Dante al gear this one's
debated. There is a death maskon display in Florence that
claims to be his death mask,although there's an argument
among the historians about theauthenticity of this mask.
(45:14):
Abraham Lincoln has one of thesemasks. His actually is a little
different, because while this iscommonly known as a death mask,
Abraham Lincoln's is actually alife mask, because it was taken
during his presidency. It wasused after his assassination to
memorialize him and to makesculptures and paintings like we
(45:35):
were talking about, but it wasactually done while he was still
living before his passing. Theseweren't just historical records.
These are also tools forconnection, literally, physical
traces of human beings, finalmoments, their physical body's
final moments on Earth. Sosometimes they're made for
(45:57):
artistic accuracy, right, likewe were talking about, to be
used at some future point bysculptors and painters and to
create busts and portraits andlikenesses of important people.
Sometimes, they were used forancestral lineage. Families
often kept these types of masksas heirlooms, and they'd be
passed down with reverence andrespect and love. Sometimes
(46:20):
these masks were made forscientific inquiry. During the
rise of more of this scientificmovement right, masks were
collected to study intellectualtraits, things like skull shape
and feature shape were studiedas part of scientific inquiry,
(46:42):
and sometimes, of course, theywere made for emotional memory.
And maybe even above all, theywere made to remember someone
deeply and physically, evenafter time had faded, the memory
of them. In our mind, we wouldhave these masks to hang onto.
There's something kind of eerieand beautiful about a practice
(47:03):
like this. It reminds me of theline between honoring the
physical form and clinging toit. Is it a way to find comfort?
Is it a way to control futurelikenesses? Is it a little bit
of both? But I started to getreally curious about how these
masks were made. I know wetalked about that in ancient
Egypt and Greece, sometimes theywere made by actually hammering
(47:25):
or tapping the gold over theperson's face, but I meant these
more intricate ones, like, howdid they actually create these
back then, with less technologythan we have today, I was kind
of surprised to learn how thesewere made. I'm going to explain
it to you, and most of you willprobably know exactly what this
is from sometime in middleschool art class. So
(47:47):
essentially, the person's facewas coated, typically in some
kind of oil. Back then, it wasoften like an animal fat that
they would just something greasyto go over the face to prevent
sticking, and then wet plasterwas gently applied over the face
and left to harden. They saidthat in the research that they
(48:10):
often did it in two halves, likethey would first do one half of
the face and then they would dothe other half of a face, so it
was easier to remove withoutgetting any you know, it'd be
more more accurate, more exactand preserved better if they did
half of the face at one time. Sothey greased it, they put the
plaster, and then they let itcure and dry for however long
(48:32):
that took. And then once theyremoved it, they would use that
as a mold, and then they wouldmake a final cast in plaster or
wax or sometimes even bronze,depending on how fancy the
person was. So it really doesremind me of that middle school
art class where you make themasks they did. It very similar
to how middle schoolers all overthe world have made these, these
(48:55):
face masks, which is sointeresting. Of course, it
wasn't a quick and easy process,because, you know, it needed
time to dry and to cure and allof that. And the truth is, the
results weren't always soflattering. It didn't they
didn't always come out great,but for many it was totally
worth it because it gave themsomething real, something
(49:16):
tangible, something that reallyfelt like a representation of
their beloved person that theyhadn't quite received in another
way, in today's world, I know weget to use things like videos,
voice messages, the way that wemake cremains or ashes into
jewelry in today's world, tofeel close to our crossed over
(49:39):
loved ones. But imagine livingback then, and imagine what you
got to have, instead of a voicemessage or a video or a photo,
was a representation of theirface on your mantle, a mask, a
face mask of them. Do you thinkthat you would find that?
Comforting. Would you like tohave that of a loved one that's
(50:02):
crossed over? Do you feel likeit's that's too much like that's
too far, or is it just a reallyhuman way of holding on? You're
not just looking at a symbol.
You'd be looking at an exactimprint of someone's face, their
last presence in this world.
This one really got me thinking,because I think it's such a
(50:26):
special and beautiful way. Evenin photos, we don't see the fine
lines, the creases, thewrinkles, the exact shape,
because it's made, you know,obviously into the photo, but
with a mask, it really is suchan incredible likeness. Would I
want to put it on my mantle? Idon't know. Maybe I'd want it
(50:48):
somewhere more private, but I'mso curious to know what you
think of that. How does that hityou? Do you think it'd be too
much? Do you think it's abeautiful way to memorialize
people is that something youmight consider doing so as we're
wrapping up today's veryinteresting episode, as strange
as these practices might seem tous now in present day,
(51:13):
photographing deceased people,weaving jewelry From hair,
casting the face of a loved onein plaster or wax. They were all
ways of saying, You mattered inthe world. You still matter.
We're not letting go of you.
They weren't just about death.
They were about relationshipsand memory and love and turning
(51:34):
grief into something tangible,something we could hold or
display when words just weren'tsatisfying or weren't enough. In
an era before voice memos orhome videos or family photos,
these objects became a bridgebetween those still living and
(51:55):
those that have already crossedover to the spirit world,
physical representations of lovewe share, still affecting, still
speaking, still having apresence interesting to think
about. Maybe the deeper messageis we find each our own way to
honor loss and no matter howunusual it may look
(52:25):
from the outside, right?
Sometimes things look a littleunusual from the outside, every
act of remembrance is, ofcourse, sacred. If this episode
made you think or stirredsomething in you, or offended
you a little bit, or made you alittle curious, emotional or
even uncomfortable, I hope thatyou will share it with someone
who understands or someonewilling to have these
(52:48):
conversations, someone who alsocarries some grief with them,
maybe, maybe someone who is alsonavigating their own journey,
someone who also carriesmemories they want to hold on
to. And if you're navigatingyour own grief, you're not
alone. There's nothing strangeabout wanting to remember
(53:09):
someone wanting to hold parts ofthem close to us. Nothing
unusual about that, right, eventhough we might do it a little
differently in present day thanin olden day. Thank you for
listening to this very unusualepisode. It was spirit
speakeasy, this maybe macabre,maybe taboo topic, but I hope
(53:30):
you enjoyed it until next time,take care of your heart. Trust
the sacred ways that itremembers. I'm sending you big
hugs and lots of love. Bye fornow from inside spirit
speakeasy, you.
Joy, hey, beautiful soul, welcome to spirit
speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni,joyful medium. I'm a working
psychic medium, energy healerand spiritual gifts mentor. This
podcast is like a seat at thetable in a secret club, but with
mediums, mystics and thespiritual luminaries of our
time. So come behind the velvetropes with me and see inside my
(00:24):
world as I chat insider stylewith profoundly gifted souls, we
go deep, share juicy stories,laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be
a speakeasy without greatinsider secrets and tips. You
might even learn that you havesome gifts of your own. So step
inside the spirit. Speak Easy.
Hey, beautiful soul, welcomeback, or welcome in for another
(00:47):
episode of spirit speakeasy. Onthis week's episode, we are
gonna be talking about hauntingkeepsakes, strange morning
tokens from the past. So in thisepisode, we're exploring some of
the strangest and most intimatemourning or grieving rituals
from the past that may even beconsidered taboo by today's
(01:12):
standards, including Victorianpost mortem Photography, hair
jewelry, death masks and evenfamily hair wreaths that were
displayed in the living room. Sothese unusual forms of
remembrance may seem eerie bytoday's standards, but they once
held deep, spiritual, emotionaland cultural meaning. So are
(01:35):
they creepy, beautiful, or both.
You decide, let's get into it.
But before we dive in to themain episode, I want to quickly
share where the inspiration forthis episode came from. I know
you might be thinking, okay,Joy. This is a bit of a strange
topic, so I wanted to sharewhere I got this little nudge,
(01:57):
this inspiration for thisepisode, and a little nudge from
spirit that I got to keep goingwith it, because I wasn't so
sure if this episode was goingto make it to you guys. So I was
listening to a podcast that Ioften listen to by Marc Maron
called WTF podcast, and hehappened to be just talking at
(02:17):
the beginning of the episode andmentioned post mortem
photography from the Victorianera, those eerie Yet oddly
touching portraits taken ofpeople after they pass away.
Like I said, especially back inVictorian times. I never heard
of this before, and I foundmyself wondering, were there
(02:38):
other unusual and maybe eventaboo ways that people have used
in the past to, you know, keepor create trinkets or remember
their loved ones? Becauseobviously you might expect in my
work as a medium, I'm oftenhearing really creative and
unique ways that people areexploring to memorialize their
(02:59):
loved ones. So this, how peoplewere memorialized or remembered
in the past, was just reallyintriguing to me. And I was
wondering maybe, what have welost or forgotten or shifted
away from in how we grieve? So Istarted digging, and wow,
Victorian morning jewelry led meto hair art, which led me to
(03:20):
death masks and on and on. Themore I found, the more I
couldn't look away. But I'll behonest, there was a point in
doing the research for thisepisode where I almost didn't
create the actual episode. Ithought to myself, Is this too
weird? Is this too dark? Willthe pod squad think this is just
too morbid and not the kind ofthing we explore here on spirit
(03:44):
speakeasy. So I was sitting withit. I had been doing some
research here in the officewhere I'm recording today, and I
was driving the short drive hometo my place. And as I was just
pondering it, I kind of put thethoughts to my guides, and was
wondering, you know, with my ownheart and soul, should I be
doing this episode or not? Ireally wasn't sure whether I
(04:06):
should keep going or just let itbe something I'd researched for
myself quietly for my owninformation. And then, as often
happens, spirit stepped in. Iwas driving home, like I said,
listening to a totally unrelatedpodcast called we can do hard
things with Glennon Doyle, AbbyWambach and Amanda Doyle, and
their guest was the amazing,beautiful writer suleika julad.
(04:29):
They were talking about writingand life and creative process,
but as they were starting intothe episode, almost out of
nowhere, suleika Gilad mentionedVictorian morning jewelry just
casually as they were talkingabout security blankets that
like little kids use, and shementioned this Victorian morning
(04:52):
jewelry that I had just beenresearching and asking, was this
episode appropriate? It. In theintro of the episode, it wasn't
even the focus of like, whatthey were talking about. It just
something that came up, and inthat moment, I knew that was my
confirmation. That was my signyou this community, our pod
squad are available for thisconversation. So here we are
(05:15):
exploring some of the strangestand most sacred ways people have
honored their deceased lovedones and what they still might
teach us about grief, memory andconnection. So let's get into
it. The first thing on my listthat I wanted to chat about is
this post mortem photography,which was a Victorian tradition
(05:38):
of remembrance. So post morningphotography, also known as
morning photography, and aswe're talking through this
episode, it's morning like M O,U R n, to mourn, to grieve,
mourning, rather than like inthe morning part of the day. So
just want to throw that outthere. So morning photography,
or memorial portraiture, as it'ssometimes called, was the
(06:00):
practice of photographing therecently deceased, typically in
like, the 19th and early 20thcentury. This was especially
common, I learned during theVictorian era. So essentially,
like 1837 to like 1901 ish andinto the Edwardian era with a
strong presence in both Europeand North America. So I'm going
(06:20):
to give you a little bit of ahistorical context, and I'm
going to break it down what thisis and how it was used
originally. This practice beganshortly after the invention of
something called thedaguerreotype in 1839 so what is
a dig? I'm sure I'm saying thisright or wrong. Rather, what is
(06:41):
a daguerreotype? Daguerreotype,pronounced daguerreotype, I'm
saying it wrong. It's not acamera, but it almost looks like
a camera. It acts similar to acamera, but it's not actually a
camera. It's a very earlyversion of the photographic
process invented by someonenamed Louis or Louis Daguerre so
(07:04):
that's why it is called thedaguerreotype. So here's a quick
breakdown of what this actuallyis. It's a produced single,
highly detailed image on asilver coated copper plate. So
before they actually had film,they used these copper plates
coated in silver, and thisdaguerreotype produced a single,
(07:28):
highly detailed image. Theprocess required a very long
exposure time and very stillsubjects at this time, because
of this long exposure for theimage to be captured. Many
people didn't have photographsof living people because they
couldn't stand or sit or bestill long enough for this long
(07:49):
shutter window exposure tocapture the image. So because of
this, it was widely it was itwas the first widely used
photographic method and sparkedthe popularity of portrait
photography, including this postmortem photography. These images
were often kept in decorativecases with velvet lining or tiny
(08:12):
latches treasured heirlooms fromthat time, and it was
prevalently popular, I guess, inthe late 18, you know, mid to
late 1800s and early 1900s andfor many families, this would be
the only photograph ever takenof their loved one. Again, not
only was it this long exposureprocess that made it hard for
(08:36):
people to be still, butphotography was still really
expensive and rare, so a postmortem image became a really
special occasion photograph andan incredibly treasured
keepsake. So what happens tothis practice as photography
becomes more accessible and theculture around death changes,
(08:58):
especially after World War One.
The practice of this post mortemphotography kind of fades from
mainstream use, but I was stillcurious about it. So what I
learned is that a lot of thispost mortem photography, they
would pose the person, thecrossed over, loved one, to
(09:19):
appear as though they weresleeping. Especially, I learned
with infants who had crossedover or children, they were
often posed for this photographyto look as though they were
peacefully sleeping. Sometimesmore for adults, they might be
propped up using like posingstands, or sometimes they would
(09:42):
even place them like seatedamongst the family, like a
family picture, that portraitthat we might think of today,
but they would prop up therecently deceased person amongst
the family sometimes, or evensometimes, they would make them
appear alive using. Somethingcalled Eye retouching on the
photo. So after they created thephoto, they would go back in and
(10:05):
almost like paint on the eyes.
Sometimes for adults, sometimesthe deceased person was
photographed with livingsiblings or spouses or parents,
especially for kids, in thecase, when kids were crossed
over. And another really commonpractice was for them to put
objects on the person or intheir hands or with them. It
(10:27):
would be things, typically likea rosary, like those prayer
beads, rosary beads, or a Bibleor if it was a kid, it might be
like a favorite toy, it might beincluded to really personalize
the image and make it just feeleven more specific to that
person. And again, sometimesthey would have the eyes closed,
(10:49):
resting peacefully. Sometimesthey would have the eyes open,
or go back in and retouch andpaint the eyes open. And this
was supposed to be kind ofsymbolizing the continued
presence or life beyond theveil, living on on the other
side. So it was kind of tosymbolize that. It was the
reason that they decided theseeyes needed to be open or
(11:11):
repainted. So there is somecultural significance here. I
came across this Latin termcalled Memento Mori, remember
you must die. These photographswere seen as a way to process
grief, and not as macabre ordark or depressing. It was
really honoring the soul andhelping to preserve the memory
(11:34):
for the family. So they reallyserved a beautiful purpose, not
a creepy or dark purpose like wemight think of today, and
especially in Catholic andOrthodox traditions, these
images often had spiritualundertones. Sometimes they would
position or put objects to kindof emphasize resurrection or
(11:57):
continued connection with thesoul, and really, in some
communities, a formal postmortem photo was a mark of
respectability or devotion. Soif you were of a status and an
income bracket to be able toafford this, it really just was
(12:17):
a sign of respect and a sign ofdevotion of the family and that
you had a certain status. So itwas really something that was
quite common. And the thing Istarted wondering is, was this
postmortem photography only forthe wealthy? Because I could
imagine that, you know, noteveryone maybe could access
(12:41):
this. So what I learned is it'snot exclusively for the wealthy,
but especially in those earlydays, it was more accessible, I
guess, by the wealthy, and thenas time went on into the 19th
century, as it progressed, Ithink this was available to more
people. So it seemed like in theearly years of this, which would
(13:03):
have been like 1840s and 50swhen the daguerreotypes first
emerged, yeah, they wererelatively expensive and mostly
common among upper and middleclass, which back then would
have been quite wealthy in theseearly images they needed like a
specialist photographer, becausethis is an early invention,
(13:24):
right? So not everyone evenpossessed one of these machines
to create the image or knew howto use it. And not only did it
require a specialist to use theequipment, but it took really
expensive materials. Remember, Imentioned that it was created on
silver plated copper. So thatcopper was expensive. They had
(13:44):
to coat it with silver, whichwas expensive. And the the
because of this long exposuretime and the way this is
created, it it was a really longsession to have someone come
over and create this specialpostmortem photography. So that
was in the beginning of this,right, 1840s and 50s in the
later years, kind of 1860s and80s and beyond into the into the
(14:06):
1900s newer photographicprocesses started to emerge,
something called ambrotypes andtintypes. So there's different
you know, as photography grows,just like anything. Even in our
current world, as technologyexpands and we get a little bit
more technology, bettertechnology, new types emerge,
(14:27):
photography became much moreaffordable and accessible even
to working class families. Sobelieve it or not, there used to
be traveling photographers. Iknow often we think about back
in the day there being liketraveling snake oil sales
people, or like tincture tonicsales people. Well, there are
(14:47):
also traveling photographers,and sometimes small studios that
offered Memorial photos at alower price, so someone might be
coming through town with theirphoto. Equipment and offer to do
this for a lower price, kind oflike today, only is my guess,
and sometimes some of them wouldeven offer payment plans. How
interesting is this for manylower income families, post
(15:11):
mortem photography might be theonly image they ever have of
this loved one, so they wouldreally prioritize it. So even if
you had a lower income as afamily, they would save and they
would really be even if it meanta big financial sacrifice, they
would really prioritize havingthis image created of their
person. So what's the bottomline here? While it began as a
(15:35):
luxury, this post mortemphotography evolved into a
widely practiced and deeplycherished form of remembrance
across all socioeconomicclasses, especially during the
height of its popularity in theVictorian era. How interesting
is this? I mean, I know today wethink like, I mean, you don't
(15:56):
really take pictures at funeralsor anything, right? That would
be totally taboo. But there wasonce a time where, you know,
today, I think we take forgranted how we all have cameras
in our phones and so manycameras and taking selfies and
pictures of anything all thetime. But there was a time where
you might not even ever have aphoto of someone. So you could
(16:17):
imagine what a big, significantMemorial this, this was to be
able to have and create, and itwas a really special thing back
then. So and again, I will linkso many resources in the show
notes for this, because, like Isaid, this was a bit of a deep
dive research for me, just formy own curiosity. The next item,
(16:38):
or way of memorializing that Icame to learn about was
something called Morning jewelryand hair art. They're considered
woven remembrances of what wasso what is mourning jewelry and
hair art? It's a lot what itsounds like in the 18th and
especially in the 19th century,it was common to incorporate a
(17:01):
lock of a deceased person's, youknow, loved one's hair into
jewelry, art or keepsakes, likea tangible Memorial, something
you can hold. This is mostcommon in Ireland, Scotland,
Victorian England and the US,which I thought was also really
interesting. So what are thecommon forms of this? I know
(17:25):
sometimes, even now, in presenttime, we think of keeping a lock
of someone's hair, especiallylike in a baby book, we might
have a lock of hair from baby'sfirst haircut, type of a thing.
But I don't know really manypeople that. I know a few people
that do, but I don't know manypeople that think of taking hair
from a crossed over loved onebefore they are cremated or
(17:49):
buried or prepared for the nextpart, but it apparently was at
one time incredibly common andthought of as one of the most
intimate keepsakes. This isperhaps the most fascinating and
tactile element. But they diduse human hair from deceased
people, and often this hair, ifthey weren't like a jeweler,
(18:14):
right? This hair was verycommonly taken braided or even
woven or maybe artisticallyshaped into things like flowers,
hearts, really decorative,special knots, or even wreaths,
like the kind you might put fora holiday or springtime on your
front door, like a wreath. Itwas often these items were taken
(18:36):
and placed under like a cloche,like a glass topper, just to
kind of keep them safe. Sosometimes they were set under
glass containers. Sometimes theywere set into glass lockets or
rings, or like a pin, a brooch,or like a pendant of some kind.
And for people who had the meansto do even more elaborate
(18:58):
things, hair was used to createbracelets, sometimes chains,
like necklaces, or even theywould use the hair and make
frames. And they would frame artlike wall art, art to hang on
the wall with a frame made outof a loved one's hair, which I
know seems really taboo bytoday's standard, but I just
(19:20):
thought this was so interesting.
And for some people, I guess ifyou had enough hair, maybe there
were these things, hair wreaths,which is just what it sounds
like. They often will put themin a shadow box, kind of like a
raised framed box, but theywould make a wreath or a ring
out of hair, and they wouldincorporate, sometimes in some
(19:42):
traditions, hair of many familymembers over time, so kind of
like a family tree or a lineagemade into a wreath with hair. So
they would, you know, over thegenerations, they would collect
hair from each loved one thatcrossed over. And they would be
incorporated or braided intothis family piece of art, this
(20:05):
family heirloom. Okay, why hair?
So that might be the one of thefirst questions you have. It was
one of the first questions Ihad. Oh, as we know, hair
doesn't decay in the same waythat other things do. So it
became more than just a way ofremembering, it became more than
just a tangible item or tangiblepart of that person. It became a
(20:27):
symbol of immortality andeternal love. It provided a
physical, tangible, touchablelink to the loved one,
especially meaningful in timesof long mourning. So they really
thought of hair as equaling themeaning of eternal because hair
(20:48):
doesn't break down and decay.
It's really a lasting part ofthe loved one, physical and
symbolically. So there's thisconnection in this practice,
betweenthe person that they love and
moving beyond death so touchingor wearing the person's hair
(21:10):
kept their memory literallyclose to someone's body, right?
Okay, I know this might seemodd, but we're going to go even
deeper into it. So it was one ofthe customs of the time. It was
part of mourning etiquette,especially in Victorian society,
people were encouraged to usevisual displays of grief and
(21:33):
mourning and hair. Art was bothemotionally significant and
fashionable, which I know soundsreally strange by today's
standards. Did you know thatQueen Victoria herself wore
morning jewelry with PrinceAlbert's hair after his passing?
I did not know this. Thepractice was especially common
(21:55):
in England and America from the1800s to the early 1900s and I'm
sure you're not surprised tolearn this, but entire
businesses were created thatspecialized in morning jewelry,
and they were called Morningjewelers who handcrafted these
intimate keepsakes. Of course,I'm sure some of them are
(22:16):
handcrafted by the familiesthemselves, but in true
entrepreneurial spirit, somepeople felt like, Oh, I could
provide this service for others,and made businesses where they
were hair specific jewelers. Sothere are some common forms of
this morning jewelry. There werethings like rings, as you might
imagine, and they often engravedthe rings with the loved one's
(22:39):
name, or perhaps their angeldate, is what we call it now,
their death date, their crossingdate. Some contained miniature
portraits, or like a miniatureportrait of the person inside
the ring, or hair inside thering. They also would sometimes
use lockets or pendants. I thinkeveryone knows what a locket is.
(23:02):
I don't see them very often, butit's like a pendant that opens.
So lockets would contain alittle lock of hair or sometimes
a tiny photograph or a tinyMemorial drawing of the person,
or even a little inscription andmemory of they also made
brooches, which is like adecorative pin that people would
wear. And they actually wouldform the hair into shapes like a
(23:25):
tree, particularly a weepingwillow, which, if you don't know
what that is, that's my favoritetree. It's the tree that has the
the branches that kind of hangdown. They're really beautiful.
So sometimes they would take thehair and form it into the shape
of a weeping willow tree, oreven an urn like shape it into
(23:46):
the shape of a vessel an urn.
And they would actually pin thehair on to themselves like a
brooch. So the actual hairitself would become the brooch.
They would make bracelets andnecklaces, and this would be
more like it, really intricatelywoven hair to be used as the
(24:08):
entire chain itself, not just aslike a centerpiece, not just as
like something hanging off thechain, but they would actually
braid the hair to make thebracelet or the necklace itself.
There were some other types ofsymbology for morning jewelry.
Victorian pieces often usedeeply coded symbols. So even
(24:30):
when they used a symbol insteadof like a photograph or a date,
the symbols had meaning andrepresentation in Victorian
time. So they used URNs A lot. Iknow today we really think of
urns as like what you would putsomeone's cremains in, but they
used actually the shape of theurn, either in art or in this
(24:53):
jewelry a lot. And the urnreally was thought to symbolize
the soul's vessel. So in thiscontext. Text urns and mourning
jewelry are symbolic, notfunctional. So it's not like
they're making a tiny urn andputting ashes in there. They're
just using the shape or theimage of the urn to represent
the vessel for the soul thatwould take them into the
(25:13):
afterlife. They used them intiny decorative motifs, and
often engraved them or sculptedthem into rings and brooches and
lockets. So while you might doone with hair, you could also
just do one in the shape of anurn, and that would also be
considered mourning jewelry.
They used the weeping willowtree a lot because it
represented sorrow and mourning.
(25:35):
They actually used skulls quitefrequently in artistry, or the
image of an hourglass, whichboth of those symbolize
mortality and time. They usedeyes so they used them in the
jewelry, sculpted or carved. Andthe eyes sometimes called lovers
eyes in little miniature form,they really represented eternal
(26:00):
watchfulness, or eternal love,like that one is that person's
eternally watching over you, orlike the love is eternal with
the eyes, if you see snakes in acircle, so kind of like a snake
swallowing its own tail. Thatsymbolizes eternity, it can also
symbolize life, death andrebirth. So they would often use
(26:21):
that in mourning jewelry.
Sometimes they used black enamelor something called jet, which
is like a fossilized dark wood,and this symbolized being solemn
and being in grief and mourning.
So it's really interesting thatnot only do they use symbolic
(26:41):
ingredients right the hairitself. But they're often using
symbolic carvings and images torepresent these different
aspects of mourning, and some ofthem were made from this jet
material that I mentioned, whichis like a fossilized wood. They
really prized that for itscolor. It came in this really
(27:03):
like deep matte black that theywould use for a lot of this
jewelry. They would sometimesuse onyx or black enamel, which
I think most of you know, onyxis a black gemstone. Gold was
often used. This might either be14 or 18 karat gold, or it might
just be gold tone and symbolizedwith black accents. They often
(27:25):
used glass in these pieces ofjewelry, especially for sealing
in hair, so putting hair underthe glass, or like pouring the
pouring the glass over the hairto really just seal it in there
and keep it occasionally backthen, they used ivory, which we
don't use today. They sometimesused seed pearls, which are
(27:48):
pearls that are more in theshape of a seed, more of an oval
shape, and they use these tosymbolically represent tears. Or
they sometimes also used bogoak, especially in Irish pieces,
morning jewelry was really notjust about grief. It was about
remembering and honoring andexpressing continued connection
(28:12):
to the dearly departed, and itactually followed strict morning
etiquette. Leave it to ourlovely British friends to have
etiquette for everything. Sothere was strict morning
etiquette back there, back then,and the jewelry was often worn
during a specific period ofmourning, like deep mourning,
(28:34):
which would be the initialperiod, or something that they
called half mourning, which wasafter a period of time. So they
had all these different reallyinteresting cultural ways of
having etiquette for grieving,having proper times for
grieving. And these pieces wereactually also made as heirlooms.
So they were made to be passeddown, especially those made with
(28:58):
hair or with that family hair,which we're going to talk about
next that contained, you know,strands of hair multiple
generations. Those were intendedto be passed down generation
after generation, like a specialheirloom piece, which I know
sounds really interesting. I betsome of these exist in the world
today. They do. Actually, youcan in the if you want to check
(29:18):
the links in the description,you will see some of these
images. There's lots ofinteresting images. So they
really did a lot of differenttypes of jewelry, and sometimes
they even did cremation ashjewelry. So I know we've talked
(29:40):
about hair and the way thatcertain symbols are used in this
jewelry. But another way thatthey did it, besides just the
hair jewelry, another type ofthis morning jewelry, which
actually exists today in adifferent way, is this cremation
ash jewelry. So they actuallytook ashes and. Transformed them
(30:00):
into glass beads, like beadsthemselves to be beaded on a
strand. It could be resinlocklets or lockets. So they
would put the resin from theashes inside a locket or a
little vessel that they wouldwear like a pendant. And today,
you know, they make diamonds,which we'll talk about in a
future episode, some artistscreate custom pieces that would
(30:24):
even include the ashes mixedinto the paint and then painted
as artwork, right? So there'slots of different ways to do
this and to create into paintedjewelry. They would paint some
of the, you know, ashes. Theymix the ashes in the paint,
paint it on the jewelry, orpaint it into a portrait, and
then sometimes they do that hairframe, right? So it really just
(30:47):
offered a tactile, wearableconnection for those grieving,
and were often designed toreflect the personality or the
passions of our dearly departedloved one in whatever instance
it was for you. Okay, I want togo a little bit more into this
hair wreath. I know I glossedover it, but this is a
(31:09):
significant one, all of itsowns. I want to dive into this a
little bit for you. And pleaseexcuse my giggles. I don't mean
to be irreverent. I found all ofthis incredibly fascinating. And
really it was very interesting,but I just know that I can
imagine, I some of you I knowwho listen to the pod.
(31:30):
Obviously, some of you I don't,but I can imagine your faces as
I'm talking about wreaths madeout of generational hair. I can
just imagine some of you andwhat your what your expressions
might look like. So if morningjewelry wasn't unusual enough,
imagine this. You walk into aVictorian receiving parlor, like
(31:51):
a kind of a formal living room,and there hanging on the wall is
a framed giant wreath. And asyou look closer, you realize
it's made out of hair, and thenyou become aware that it's human
hair. Sometimes it's just fromone person, but more often, like
I mentioned, it's a wholefamily, so almost used as like a
(32:12):
family tree, literally wovenfrom the strands of hair of our
ancestors. And sometimes theywould actually also use hair of
living people, like if theywanted to just incorporate them
into this family tree, thisfamily wreath, they didn't
necessarily have to be crossedover for them to do it, but they
(32:32):
often would use hair aftersomeone had crossed over. So
what were these hair wreaths?
Hair wreaths are large,intricate wall hangings made
from braided, looped or evensometimes flower shaped loops of
human hair. Usually they mountedthem on velvet or some sort of
parchment paper and then framedand put glass on top. So like a
(32:56):
like a framed piece of art. Buthere's the twist. They weren't
always just from the deceased,as I mentioned, many were made
from the hair of multiple familymembers, both alive and passed
on. And they even carefullylabeled and arranged the
different parts of hair likebranches sometimes, so almost
(33:17):
like making the portrait, thepicture itself, into an actual
shape of a tree, and then theywould label the branches with
each person's hair so they couldidentify who it belonged to,
almost like scrapbooking, butwith hair, most common shapes
were like I said, this treeoften, a common shape was a
(33:41):
horseshoe pointing upwardstowards heaven, symbolizing the
cycle of life. Other designsoften included symbolic forms,
again, like willow tree,branches, roses, forget me,
knots, all made from hair. Andreally, this got me thinking,
this might be strange what Ithought of, but I was thinking
(34:01):
of the time that this took, theprecision, the really somber
hours It must have taken tospend weaving these remembrances
into something so fragile and sopermanent at the same time, I
can only imagine, If you've everseen, if you've ever been to
like arts and crafts museums andseen tapestries that are woven
(34:24):
by hand, or braids and knotsthat are created by hand with
thread, just imagine how muchmore challenging that is to
create these intricate designsBy weaving or braiding hair that
just seems really fragile andreally delicate for the artisan
to create. And unlike jewelry,these weren't worn or hidden.
(34:50):
These wreaths are publiclydisplayed, and often in the
family's front room, like thereceiving room, where they would
invite company. Guests, theywould have this wreath or this
picture this, thisrepresentation made with family
hair and in Victorian society,this wasn't considered creepy or
(35:12):
strange or taboo at all. It wasactually considered respectful
and even thought of asfashionable. So lots of people
had it, and it was thought of aslike, oh, in fashion, if you did
these pieces reflected reverencefor ancestry, for lineage, for
the blending of new life andreleasing those that have come
(35:36):
before us, and really served asa bit of a family archive in
some instances. So some includedhand stitched name tags, like I
was saying, for each for eachbraid of hair, like for each
person, whether it was like oneperson's hair made into a braid
of a tree and then anotherbranch, they would label each
(35:58):
one with whose hair that was.
Sometimes it would includethings like the passing date.
Sometimes they would usedifferent colored ribbons or
different ribbons instead oflike a name tag to signify each
different person's strands ofhair, just to identify it again,
like a family archive of sorts,others featured a photo in the
(36:22):
middle, or maybe like a quote,or sometimes a spiritual verse,
a Bible verse, maybe ahandwritten dedication. It's
really strange, maybe to thinkof memorializing our family on a
wall in this way, but in an erabefore photographs were common,
it made sense, and a lot ofpeople did some sort of sewing
(36:44):
or weaving or handicraft. Backthen, hair was lasting. It was
familiar. It's kind of aspersonal as we can get, and we
now know hair even carries DNA.
So even though it might seem alittle bit odd or taboo by
today's standards, you can seewhy it was so prominently
featured and why it was socommon for people to have so I
(37:08):
also was wondering, like, howwere these made? I know I talked
about the intricacy and howdifficult this must have been,
but I was wondering if this wassort of like the photography
where they'd have travelingsales people come around and
offer to braid any family hairyou had around. I just wasn't
(37:28):
sure how I mean, and please knowI mean all of this with the most
love and respect. But how werethese made? So oftentimes,
because so many people knew howto weave or braid they these
pieces were done by the familymembers themselves, as you might
imagine, more often, women inthe family. But they also did
have professional hair workartists. Not only did they have
(37:52):
professional artists, but astime went on, they also had
instructions for making thesetypes of artistry, and they
would publish them in likewomen's magazines and grief
guides and things I don't know.
(38:13):
I know we don't think ofeverything as online. Now. We
don't tend to read lots ofmagazines. When I was a kid,
there would be magazines at thecheckout stand or maybe at a
store. And some of thosemagazines might have patterns or
like a like a dress pattern or aquilt pattern. These had hair
work patterns, grieving hair,hair remembrance or family hair
(38:34):
archive, grieving patterns. Andit was, it was that common that
they were publishing patternsand instructions of how to do
these into women's magazines.
The hair was, of course,cleaned. I learned that they
often even boiled it, just toreally, like, make sure it was
sanitized and cleaned. And thenthey ultimately, eventually
started weaving them around,like thin wire, almost like
(38:58):
floral wire or jewelry typewire, very thin wire, so they
could shape them a little bitmore easily or seamlessly.
Sometimes they would even braidthem or weave them around silk
thread so that they could formthese really intricate floral
designs and patterns. These werereally actual art pieces, craft
(39:19):
pieces, if you will. So they'rethey're incredibly elaborate in
some cases, especially as timegoes on and and these are widely
shared patterns, and people haveaccess to this wire and to silk
thread. So it really does growand expand into a beautiful art
form. And it does help to knowthat the hair was cleaned and
(39:42):
and treated with love and care.
And again, this was often done,even though there are these,
these artisans that do it. Thisis often done by grieving family
members themselves as part oftheir grieving process. It
really kind of blurs the line alittle bit between. Crafts and
ritual, between art andremembrance, between the
(40:06):
physical body and the sacrednext steps, right? So I thought
that the hair art, the wreathsand the hair framed glassed
pictures were just sointeresting, especially knowing
that they often did the portraitor the picture from multiple
(40:27):
people's hair and even labeledthem. How interesting, right? So
after I felt like I thoroughlyexhausted understanding the hair
wreaths, the next thing that Imoved on to is something called
a death mask, and it's oftenthought of a way of remembering
(40:49):
the face the structure, theinstead of a portrait, it's a
mask of someone's face. Soimagine that you're standing in
a museum, and you'll come faceto face with a mask. It's not
carved or sculpted, but it'smolded directly from the face of
someone who has just passedaway, every wrinkle, every line,
(41:10):
every crease, every part oftheir final expression,
perfectly preserved. This iswhat's called a death mask, and
it's one of the most intimateand quite honestly unsettling
forms of remembrance in history.
Again, links in show notes. Whatis a death mask? A death mask is
a physical cast, usually madefrom wax or plaster, and it's
(41:31):
taken of the face of a deceasedperson, usually newly deceased,
typically within hours of theirpassing, it captures the
individual's true likeness,sometimes down to even like the
texture of their skin and theplacement of their eyelashes.
Believe it or not, what strikesme about death masks is how
(41:53):
deeply personal they are. You'renot just remembering someone or
having like a photograph of themor a lock of their hair, you're
literally preserving their face,not just a portrait or a
photograph, not a painting, butactually them as they were in
that final moment of stillness.
(42:14):
So this practice actually wasdone many places and across lots
of time, not just not just smallperiods of time, like in those
Victorian traditions we weretalking about, this actually was
done even in ancient Egypt. AndMycenae Egyptians created golden
(42:35):
funeral masks, likeI know, when I was a kid at the
science museum in Boston, we hadKing Tut and the masks and the
remains. So if you have everseen any of these, you know
Egyptian masks. That's how theywere often done, not as a
likeness, but as a spiritualtool. They were meant to help
guide the soul of the crossedover person to the afterlife and
(42:58):
to protect their identity. Thisalso was done in ancient Greece.
Death masks were made ofhammered gold. Sometimes they
would lay the gold over the faceand kind of hammer it to make
the sculpture right over thedeceased person's face in the
burial chamber. And this is moresymbolic than personal. This in
(43:20):
ancient Greece was not so muchabout the soul's journey or it
was more about the soul'sjourney. Not so much for
preservation or grief for thefamily. This was more about the
afterlife and the belief of thesoul needing to be identified in
the afterlife and needing to beset properly on its journey. So
that is sort of the tradition inancient Egypt and Greece. But in
(43:42):
the Renaissance and VictorianEurope, in medieval, Medieval
and Renaissance Europe, thesedeath masks began serving
artistic and genealogicalpurposes, not just afterlife
purposes. And again, by the 18thand 19th century, they became
common for famous figures,artists, philosophers, even
(44:04):
royalty, would have these masksmade. They were used as
references for portraiture,like, if they're gonna, you
know, a king passes away, andlater they want to paint a
portrait of him, they would usethis mask to make sure they had
a very good likeness, forexample, and they would use them
for not just to paint aportrait, but to do a sculpture.
And in some cases, they wouldeven use these masks for
(44:27):
scientific study. Howinteresting, right? You might be
surprised to learn, as I was,that there are some famous death
masks made Napoleon Bonaparte,his death mask was cast just
hours after his death on StHelena. How crazy is that?
Ludwig von Beethoven in 1827there is a mask of him. His mask
(44:51):
is still studied and displayedtoday, revealing lots of stress
lines. In his later years, it issaid Dante al gear this one's
debated. There is a death maskon display in Florence that
claims to be his death mask,although there's an argument
among the historians about theauthenticity of this mask.
(45:14):
Abraham Lincoln has one of thesemasks. His actually is a little
different, because while this iscommonly known as a death mask,
Abraham Lincoln's is actually alife mask, because it was taken
during his presidency. It wasused after his assassination to
memorialize him and to makesculptures and paintings like we
(45:35):
were talking about, but it wasactually done while he was still
living before his passing. Theseweren't just historical records.
These are also tools forconnection, literally, physical
traces of human beings, finalmoments, their physical body's
final moments on Earth. Sosometimes they're made for
(45:57):
artistic accuracy, right, likewe were talking about, to be
used at some future point bysculptors and painters and to
create busts and portraits andlikenesses of important people.
Sometimes, they were used forancestral lineage. Families
often kept these types of masksas heirlooms, and they'd be
passed down with reverence andrespect and love. Sometimes
(46:20):
these masks were made forscientific inquiry. During the
rise of more of this scientificmovement right, masks were
collected to study intellectualtraits, things like skull shape
and feature shape were studiedas part of scientific inquiry,
(46:42):
and sometimes, of course, theywere made for emotional memory.
And maybe even above all, theywere made to remember someone
deeply and physically, evenafter time had faded, the memory
of them. In our mind, we wouldhave these masks to hang onto.
There's something kind of eerieand beautiful about a practice
(47:03):
like this. It reminds me of theline between honoring the
physical form and clinging toit. Is it a way to find comfort?
Is it a way to control futurelikenesses? Is it a little bit
of both? But I started to getreally curious about how these
masks were made. I know wetalked about that in ancient
Egypt and Greece, sometimes theywere made by actually hammering
(47:25):
or tapping the gold over theperson's face, but I meant these
more intricate ones, like, howdid they actually create these
back then, with less technologythan we have today, I was kind
of surprised to learn how thesewere made. I'm going to explain
it to you, and most of you willprobably know exactly what this
is from sometime in middleschool art class. So
(47:47):
essentially, the person's facewas coated, typically in some
kind of oil. Back then, it wasoften like an animal fat that
they would just something greasyto go over the face to prevent
sticking, and then wet plasterwas gently applied over the face
and left to harden. They saidthat in the research that they
(48:10):
often did it in two halves, likethey would first do one half of
the face and then they would dothe other half of a face, so it
was easier to remove withoutgetting any you know, it'd be
more more accurate, more exactand preserved better if they did
half of the face at one time. Sothey greased it, they put the
plaster, and then they let itcure and dry for however long
(48:32):
that took. And then once theyremoved it, they would use that
as a mold, and then they wouldmake a final cast in plaster or
wax or sometimes even bronze,depending on how fancy the
person was. So it really doesremind me of that middle school
art class where you make themasks they did. It very similar
to how middle schoolers all overthe world have made these, these
(48:55):
face masks, which is sointeresting. Of course, it
wasn't a quick and easy process,because, you know, it needed
time to dry and to cure and allof that. And the truth is, the
results weren't always soflattering. It didn't they
didn't always come out great,but for many it was totally
worth it because it gave themsomething real, something
(49:16):
tangible, something that reallyfelt like a representation of
their beloved person that theyhadn't quite received in another
way, in today's world, I know weget to use things like videos,
voice messages, the way that wemake cremains or ashes into
jewelry in today's world, tofeel close to our crossed over
(49:39):
loved ones. But imagine livingback then, and imagine what you
got to have, instead of a voicemessage or a video or a photo,
was a representation of theirface on your mantle, a mask, a
face mask of them. Do you thinkthat you would find that?
Comforting. Would you like tohave that of a loved one that's
(50:02):
crossed over? Do you feel likeit's that's too much like that's
too far, or is it just a reallyhuman way of holding on? You're
not just looking at a symbol.
You'd be looking at an exactimprint of someone's face, their
last presence in this world.
This one really got me thinking,because I think it's such a
(50:26):
special and beautiful way. Evenin photos, we don't see the fine
lines, the creases, thewrinkles, the exact shape,
because it's made, you know,obviously into the photo, but
with a mask, it really is suchan incredible likeness. Would I
want to put it on my mantle? Idon't know. Maybe I'd want it
(50:48):
somewhere more private, but I'mso curious to know what you
think of that. How does that hityou? Do you think it'd be too
much? Do you think it's abeautiful way to memorialize
people is that something youmight consider doing so as we're
wrapping up today's veryinteresting episode, as strange
as these practices might seem tous now in present day,
(51:13):
photographing deceased people,weaving jewelry From hair,
casting the face of a loved onein plaster or wax. They were all
ways of saying, You mattered inthe world. You still matter.
We're not letting go of you.
They weren't just about death.
They were about relationshipsand memory and love and turning
(51:34):
grief into something tangible,something we could hold or
display when words just weren'tsatisfying or weren't enough. In
an era before voice memos orhome videos or family photos,
these objects became a bridgebetween those still living and
(51:55):
those that have already crossedover to the spirit world,
physical representations of lovewe share, still affecting, still
speaking, still having apresence interesting to think
about. Maybe the deeper messageis we find each our own way to
honor loss and no matter howunusual it may look
(52:25):
from the outside, right?
Sometimes things look a littleunusual from the outside, every
act of remembrance is, ofcourse, sacred. If this episode
made you think or stirredsomething in you, or offended
you a little bit, or made you alittle curious, emotional or
even uncomfortable, I hope thatyou will share it with someone
who understands or someonewilling to have these
(52:48):
conversations, someone who alsocarries some grief with them,
maybe, maybe someone who is alsonavigating their own journey,
someone who also carriesmemories they want to hold on
to. And if you're navigatingyour own grief, you're not
alone. There's nothing strangeabout wanting to remember
(53:09):
someone wanting to hold parts ofthem close to us. Nothing
unusual about that, right, eventhough we might do it a little
differently in present day thanin olden day. Thank you for
listening to this very unusualepisode. It was spirit
speakeasy, this maybe macabre,maybe taboo topic, but I hope
(53:30):
you enjoyed it until next time,take care of your heart. Trust
the sacred ways that itremembers. I'm sending you big
hugs and lots of love. Bye fornow from inside spirit
speakeasy, you.
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