{"id":3709,"date":"2016-02-16T14:19:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/?p=3709"},"modified":"2026-10-01T16:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T21:33:04","slug":"remember-me-mourning-in-the-19th-century-chester-county-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/remember-me-mourning-in-the-19th-century-chester-county-pa\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember Me: Mourning in the 19th Century, Chester County, PA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These are screen shots from an exhibit at the Chester County Historical Society in 2001 called <em>Remember Me: Mourning in the 19th Century<\/em>. The objects on display included funeral attire, antique jewelry, portraits, painted miniatures, and memorial needlework.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3711\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3711\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning01.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3711\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3711 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning01.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3711\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Remember Me: Mourning in the Nineteenth Century April 28 &#8211; November 24, 2001 Chester County Historical Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3712\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3712\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning02.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3712\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3712\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning02.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3712\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mourning the the early 1800s reflected a close involvement with death. In rural areas such as Chester County, friends and neighbors helped to prepare and bury the deceased. They shared the grief and used funeral rituals and tokens of remembrance to reconfirm the relationships of the living. These tokens often included samplers and daguerreotypes. At a time in America&#8217;s history when epidemics such as cholera and yellow fever were common, one could assuage the fear of losing a loved one forever by having daguerreotypes taken and given to their families.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3713\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3713\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning03.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3713\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3713\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning03.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3713\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the 1830s mourning began to focus inwardly within the family. Population explosions enlarged urban centers and work and home became separate spheres. In reaction, Romantics, who believed in a connection between God, nature, and humanity, viewed the home and natural settings as retreats from these social upheavals. Death was part of nature but its finality was disguised in sentimental expressions. Locks of hair were popular tokens of remembrance and elaborate hair wreaths were often on display in parlors of homes because the non-decaying nature of hair suggested permanence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3714\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3714\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning04.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3714\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3714\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning04.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People, especially women, memorialized family in their homes and outwardly mourned with symbolic clothing, visually distancing themselves from the larger community. Although not everyone could afford to or chose to display their grief, the melancholy and spiritual belief in a benevolent god spread far into predominantly Protestant Chester County.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3715\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3715\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning05.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3715\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3715\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning05.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3715\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Funerals are a form of ceremonial and public mourning. In this region, communities mourned by participating in the process. They build coffins and prepared the bodies for burial. But by the mid-1800s the line between life and death became blurred by the desire to preserve the corpse with embalming and to create the image of permanent sleep. Coffins, elongated octagons, gave way to caskets, usually rectangular, and undertakers took over the tasks of family and friends. Funerals once held in the home slowly began to take place in funeral parlors as trends toward professionalism spreads from urban to rural areas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3716\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3716\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning06.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3716\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3716\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning06.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3716\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Influenced by medical and scientific developments, Americans began to distance themselves from death and prolonged mourning in the late 1800s. Formal burial places reveal this trend. In the 1800s picturesque, sprawling cemeteries replaced compact graveyards. Rural-style cemeteries in the 1830s were developed to allow visitors to contemplate life in a natural refuge. But the growing desire to control nature, and life itself, led to lawn-park cemeteries of the late 1800s and memorial parks of the 1900s, each becoming increasingly uniform in appearance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"boxer\" title=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" href=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning07.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3710\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3710 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning07.gif\" alt=\"Remember Me: Mourning\" width=\"550\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are screen shots from an exhibit at the Chester County Historical Society in 2001 called Remember Me: Mourning in the 19th Century. The objects on display included funeral attire, antique jewelry, portraits, painted miniatures, and memorial needlework. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[54,119,41,53],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-3709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chester-county","category-colonial-life","category-history","category-pennsylvania","tag-social-customs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3viLY-XP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/thrown-molded-dipped-and-glazed-ceramics-of-southeastern-pennsylvania\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":0},"title":"Thrown, Molded, Dipped, and Glazed: Ceramics of Southeastern Pennsylvania","author":"Karen","date":"February 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"These are screen shots from an online exhibit called Thrown, Molded, Dipped, and Glazed: Ceramics of Southeastern Pennsylvania from the Chester County Historical Society, 2001. I put them out here to share this info for anyone researching this subject. Thrown, Molded, Dipped, and Glazed explores the history of ceramics in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chester County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chester County","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/united-states\/pennsylvania\/chester-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thrown, Molded, Dipped, & Glazed","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThrownMoldedDippedGlazed01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThrownMoldedDippedGlazed01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThrownMoldedDippedGlazed01.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3740,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/just-over-the-line-chester-county-and-the-underground-railroad\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":1},"title":"Just Over The Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad","author":"Karen","date":"February 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In or around 2002, I went to see this exhibit at the Chester County Historical Society and found it so interesting that I came home and saved copies of the online portion from their website. They always do a wonderful job researching and presenting their material. Located just north of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chester County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chester County","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/united-states\/pennsylvania\/chester-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Just Over the Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/jotl-tour_exhibit1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/jotl-tour_exhibit1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/jotl-tour_exhibit1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6662,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/jefferis-ford-on-the-brandywine\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":2},"title":"Jefferis&#8217; Ford on the Brandywine","author":"Karen","date":"October 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Jefferis Ford was an early crossing of the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek in East Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It became historically significant during the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, when the main British flanking column under Generals Sir William Howe and Lord Charles Cornwallis crossed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Around Chadds Ford&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Around Chadds Ford","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/united-states\/pennsylvania\/delaware-county\/around-chadds-ford\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jefferiss-Ford-Lossing-The-Pictorial-Field-Book-of-the-Revolution-cropped.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jefferiss-Ford-Lossing-The-Pictorial-Field-Book-of-the-Revolution-cropped.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jefferiss-Ford-Lossing-The-Pictorial-Field-Book-of-the-Revolution-cropped.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jefferiss-Ford-Lossing-The-Pictorial-Field-Book-of-the-Revolution-cropped.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jefferiss-Ford-Lossing-The-Pictorial-Field-Book-of-the-Revolution-cropped.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6472,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/chester-bethel-cemetery-wilmington-delaware\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":3},"title":"Chester Bethel Cemetery, Wilmington, Delaware","author":"Karen","date":"December 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I visited the Chester Bethel Church and Cemetery this week to shoot some photos of gravestones for FindAGrave.com. I gave myself an hour to photograph three grave sites. Of course, it didn't work out as planned! The cemetery was larger than I thought and I couldn't find the headstones in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Churches &amp; Cemeteries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Churches &amp; Cemeteries","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/churches-cemeteries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chester Bethel Church, original, 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chester-Bethel-Church-original-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4004,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/chadds-ford-area-timeline\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":4},"title":"Chadds Ford Area Timeline","author":"Karen","date":"March 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"1655 Dutch ship wrecked within the mouth of the Brandywine River, laden with brandy or \u201cbrandewijn.\u201d 1684 Birmingham Township settled and incorporated. Chichester Meeting founded. 1686 Concord Meeting established. 1690 Birmingham Meeting founded. 1670 Andrew Braindwine received a grant of land near the mouth of the Brandywine River. 1704 William\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Around Chadds Ford&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Around Chadds Ford","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/united-states\/pennsylvania\/delaware-county\/around-chadds-ford\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chadds Ford Inn, 2007, Photo Courtesy Karen Furst, for web","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chadds-Ford-Inn-2007-Photo-Courtesy-Karen-Furst-for-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chadds-Ford-Inn-2007-Photo-Courtesy-Karen-Furst-for-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chadds-Ford-Inn-2007-Photo-Courtesy-Karen-Furst-for-web.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chadds-Ford-Inn-2007-Photo-Courtesy-Karen-Furst-for-web.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10275,"url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/cochranville-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":3709,"position":5},"title":"Cochranville Schools","author":"Karen","date":"October 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The West Fallowfield Community Center, located at 3095 Limestone Road in Cochranville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was once the West Fallowfield Elementary School, where I attended third grade in the 1970s. Today, the building serves as a community center and houses the West Fallowfield Township offices. It is one of several\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chester County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chester County","link":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/category\/places\/united-states\/pennsylvania\/chester-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Vintage-Postcard-of-Cochranville-High-School.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RememberMe-Mourning01.gif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3709"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3723,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions\/3723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenfurst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}