Guest Author, Jeanne Adams on A-Dressing the Dead Through Centuries

Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting today's History Undressed guest author, Jeanne Adams, at a writer's workshop. She was presenting a thoroughly engaging presentation on bodies--dead bodies. I am pleased to introduce you to her today, and for you to read her fascinating post!

A-Dressing the Dead Through Centuries

by Jeanne Adams

Hello Historical Undressers! Or should that be Undressed Historians? Either way, I'm thrilled to be here with you at History Undressed today. Thank you to Eliza for inviting me.

Early 20th Century Funeral

One of the key happenings in a tremendous number of historical novels is a "death in the family." Either the old Duke kicked off unexpectedly bestowing the title on the brilliant hero; or the onerous husband left the lovely hoyden a young, desperate widow; or the duel went badly for someone's brother/uncle/cousin/friend.

So, what happens then?

Well, most historical novelists leave that off-screen in the book. Why? I think its because the costuming, carriages and social mores are difficult enough to get right, they don't want to have to go researching how to deal with the dead too!

I, on the other hand, have a bizarre fascination with this topic. (I teach a class on body disposal, after all.) Throughout history, death rituals have been integral to society's function. From Great-Grandma's passing to Funerals of State, I've learned many morbid fact on how the business of death was handled.

Mourning Hair Pin

Of course, in ancient times, the rites and methods are primitive. Dig a hole, sing a song, wrap up some grave goods and slap a lot of rocks on top of the grave so the spirit can't come haunt you for anything you might have done - or not done - in life. The rock cairn, barrow or grave was pretty standard before the 10th century. Catacombs and so on were in vogue in the cities, but out in the countryside, it was the rock cairn.

We move up in history to more civilized times (relatively, of course!) and we begin to find actual rites and statues over the graves rather than plain rocks and even...drum roll, please....laws regarding the handling of the dead. As early as the eighteenth century, people were experimenting with embalming. The wars on the Continent, with their dismaying body counts, and weather conditions precluded bringing those first-son's remains home for a proper Christian/Jewish burial. This was unpopular with parents and siblings who were fond of that younger son who went off to war and stuck his spoon in the wall, so in the 1760's some enterprising German scientists worked out ways to preserve the tissues. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't popular, but it did work. So if you see someone use it in a book in the 1700s, they ARE technically correct. But if they indicate it was all the rage, they would be INcorrect. In fact, many places there were laws about embalming being a desecration, just like autopsies!

Crypts of Kings and Queens

It actually took quite a long time for embalming to catch on. It wasn't en vogue until the early part of the twentieth century, as we began to be so migratory. Some great heads of state were embalmed or preserved of course, so they could lie in state, but the majority of the Peers and the Commons had no such luxury. In fact, the undertaker wasn't usually a profession found anywhere but the very largest cities until the mid-to-late eighteen hundreds. If Grandma passed away at the manor house, she did so in the company of her family, who then took up the task of preparing the body. Usually, the women of the household would undress the body and wash it - necessary even today, given what the body does when all the muscles go slack - then dress the deceased in his or her final costume.

NOLA Crypts

In the early days, the body would then be laid out on a bier - sometimes a table, sometime simple planks over two saw horses. A cloth would be used to tie the mouth shut, and the hands would be secured together at the waist, usually with another cloth or a black ribbon so they wouldn't dangle down, or fall down at an inopportune or frightening time during a service, visitation or wake. Certain cultures put a coin in the mouth, the shoe, or the hand (some under the eyelids to keep the eyes shut - weird!). This is a holdover from the Pagan custom of paying Charon, the boatman, for safe passage to the underworld.

In most households, even the poorest, a shroud or pall would cover the body, scented candles would be lit at the head and foot, and flowers would be brought in as well. Lillies are associated with death and funerals because they have a strong scent and can cover the stench long illness can bring to a body, or the meat-gone-bad smell notifying all that decay may have already begun it's work. The shroud was black or dark grey and could be made of anything from dyed Belgium lace to black cotton.



"Dracula" Coffin



If the family were well off, a coffin would be built (notice I said coffin, not casket) by the local carpenter, furniture maker, or tradesman. Up until the late 1800s and early 1900s, there weren't big casket manufacturing concerns. Mostly, the local cabinetmaker took up this task for the local populace. There were specialists in this sort of thing in the bigger cities, again, but the well-to-do often still had one custom made for their loved ones. The poorer folk usually wrapped the body in canvas, or sailcloth, and the shroud and the cloth were all that stood between the body and it's return to the earth.

On the side note, a coffin is an eight-sided "Dracula box" and was the standard burial container until around 1910 when caskets - like the modern four-sided containers now in use - came more into vogue.


Antique Hearse

The gravediggers would be hired, the local livery stable would dust off the funeral coach for the wealthy, and gloss up the black horses or mules. The mourners would gather, mostly walking behind the coach, and proceed either to the family cemetery (no longer allowed for burials in most places, btw), the churchyard of the church in which Grandma worshiped, or if poor, the local draft-horse-hitch would carry the body to Potter's Field, or the Burying Ground for the Poor and Destitute. The body, in or out of the coffin, would be lowered into the ground with ropes, which would then be pulled out. (this is why there are usually two cross braces on the bottom of a coffin, insuring the ropes don't slip off and drop the body or casket unceremoniously, which would be very bad luck, and so the ropes can be pulled out of the grave.) Words spoken, tears wept, the gravediggers would cover the grave, and we process off the property and away to our chores, which continue on, even if Grandma is gone.

Post-Mortem
Photography

Costuming comes into play here as well, with mourning gowns and black armbands. I do wish people still wore black armbands, signifying the loss of a loved one, so that you didn't wish them HAPPY NEW YEAR! in a rollicking fashion if they'd just suffered a grief. Having lost a loved one at the holidays, it would have saved me some suffering to have some outward, costume-significant notification system, like they did in the old days!

Apart from dress codes, there are some other quite interesting and peculiarly morbid things of note from previous centuries. Sometimes, a lock of hair would be cut from the deceased's head and that lock would be woven into a piece of artwork, or pressed under glass and fashioned into a brooch or ring, as a memorial. These are called Memento Mori - Death Memorials - and are now quite collectible. Interesting in a gruesome kind of way, don't you think? It reached a high art form in Victorian times, with intricate beadwork, floral wreaths and framed "samplers" being made, all with hair from the various deceased members of the family!

And speaking of wakes, another interesting note is the fear many people had of being buried alive. Hence the Wake, or Death Vigil. Is Great Gramma really dead? Well, someone better sit up with her body and be absolutely sure. There'll be hell to pay in Heaven, if St. Peter tells you you buried Great Gramma before her time, right? So, there were coffins made with glass face plates, with bells on them so that if one suddenly awakened, one could ring the bell and notify one's kin that one was not yet dead. There were rappers - think a reversed door-knocker - nailed to the inside of the coffin. And even some which had latches and handles inside, so one could push one's way out should the need arise. As photography progressed in capability, a photographer would often be summoned to take a picture of the deceased in his or her coffin, as a memento. Grim, eh?

There are footnotes about the horses, the black feathers on the coaches, and I can't even get into all the antique military funerary fun in this short blog. If I did, you'd still be here reading it tomorrow!

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, however, for works in progress, for curiosity, or for whatever reason you'd like to ask! I have a great deal of information about tombs and tombstones too...bwah-ha-ha-ha!

I'd love to know, from you, dear Undressed Readers (there's a visual!), if you've read a good funeral scene in a historical lately? I've not seen one in a while.....got any for me? And whilst you are all more historically inclined, I'd happily give away a contemporary - mine - to one questioner today. There are bodies in it, I assure you, as I like to blow things up.

Again, thank you for having me here today! Now...ask away!