EP 44: Death Positive Practices, Imagery and Icons from the Victorian Era

In this fascinating trip to the Victorian era we learn about a world in which people had a much healthier relationship with death than we have today, and the roots of what became the popular practice of commercial mediumship in the UK and the U.S. 

Our guest Jennifer Ingraham collects, buys and sells antiques specfically related to death and mourning in the Victorian period. Her collection of unique objects includes memorial hair wreaths, clothing, post-mortem photography, viewing coffins, and a wide variety of curious ceremonial objects that were commonly used at the time.  She also shares fascinating stories about the spiritualist movement in the early 20th century and its views of death and the afterlife in contrast to the restricted, medicalized views held today.

Some key points: 

• How Queen Victoria influenced how we grieve
• How the industrial revolution changed our relationship with death
• Wealth, power and social change 
• Changes within the church, abundance of new denominations 
• Science, medicine, and death rates 
• Death Items of the Victorians: 
• Spiritualism and the Seance 
• Famous individuals that attended/hosted seances 
• Spiritualism as entertainment (and its downfall)
• Changing views of death 
• 
  

To see some of  Jennifer's collection visit:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Stair-11-100054252080350/

ABOUT JENNIFER: 

Jennifer Ingraham livesat the foot of the Beartooth mountains in rural Montana with her husband and two daughters. After growing up in a family of educators, Jennifer earned her undergraduate degree in secondary English education before choosing to pursue antiques as a full-time career.  Collecting, buying, and selling death and mourning related antiques has become her focus for the last decade. Her involvement in the field of mourning and death memorabilia, as well as her own personal losses, led to her to current pursuit of a Master’s in Thanatology degree at Marian University.