THE DEAR DEPARTED: Children and the 19th Century Concept of Death with Sylvia Sagona

The development of medicine and the strengthening of family ties in the 19th century saw a new attitude to death emerge. The memory of the ‘departed’ was kept alive by every means, from séances to post mortem photography.

Increasingly elaborate mourning rituals were defined, clothing and jewellery were designed, garden cemeteries were created where the dead could ‘sleep’, epitaphs were invented and the geography of the afterlife was redefined. This lecture will examine the Victorian cult of the dead in relation to children.

Sylvia Sagona is Fellow of the School of Languages at the University of Melbourne (Department of French and Italian Studies) and specialises in 19th Century French art and society.