# easter christmas folklorethursday mrsdaffodil mementomorimonday nationalbeerday shakespearesunday

Is it too early to post about bunnies?
Illustration by Charles Copeland for Pinocchio, 1904

23 81
2021-03-31

Those who have second sight say when a shroud is seen about a person, the time of his death is judged according to the height of the shroud upon his person. The higher it is toward the head, the sooner his death will be.

4 7
2021-03-07

"Posing the Corpse"--for a joke, so the corpse can accuse a malefactor, or join in the fun of the wake.
https://t.co/7nIQI7be7r

1 7
2021-03-04

1886 Mr Brown died and left a widow. She did not long mourn, but bestowed her hand (she had no heart) upon Dr. Ward, who attended her husband in his last illness. The townspeople are very indignant and will take up her husband's remains for examination.

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2021-02-23

Watch out for too much punch! The Last Drop, Thomas Rowlandson, 1801

https://t.co/8WrpUy89CR

4 14
2020-12-19

The night-watch over a corpse and a sinister aural haunting. I do love a ghost story that includes mourning customs. https://t.co/OR4QlGXayg

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2020-10-14

Reported in 1896
The funeral procession must not cross a river.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.

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2020-08-20

1883
A colonel was courting an Austin widow.
A friend asked the widow how she spent her days.
“Most of my time is taken up with general duties.”
“General Duties! You fickle creature. What will the colonel say when he finds the general cutting him out!

1 3
2020-08-12

A cane made of "Wood of Grant's Funeral Car." This might be the Albany funeral car (top photo) or the New York City funeral car (below)
https://t.co/QLyZk9Z2xs

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2020-08-08

Widow's Bonnet from Eaton's Spring and Summer Catalogue, 1904. $5.00 to $10.00, depending on quality of veil.

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2020-07-08

joke du jour 1883 1/2
Miss Gushington (to young widow whose husband has left her a large fortune): “That is the fourteenth mourning costume I have seen you wear in three days and each lovelier and more becoming than the other!"

2 5
2020-05-27

on a jealous husband, his cold-hearted, faithless, abominable wife, an insurance policy, and the undertaker. Hilarity ensues. https://t.co/ShshR98H15

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2020-05-15

1868 widow snark:
How long does a widow mourn for her husband?
She mourns for a second.

[Robes de deuil et de demi-deuil, Heloise Suzanne Leloir, 1869 https://t.co/LC8sZIaqzd]

0 3
2020-05-13

A Merry Company, [not practising social distancing] Disturbed by Death, Gesina ter Borch, c. 1660
https://t.co/iN9jHRgcPW

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2020-05-11

Heartless joke du jour 1888
Mr. Mould (the undertaker): I heard some bad news today. A man whom I’ve known for years has just died.
Mrs. Mould (smiles): That ought not to be very bad news for us, Uriah.
Mr. Mould: He was blown up by dynamite, my dear.

2 14
2020-04-27

1882 widow snark 2/2.
Probably the principal change [the widow] feels from his loss is one in her income, and men have been known to designedly curtail the finances in such instances in order to insure that they should be missed in some degree.

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2020-04-13

L. Crusius illustration "Ein Stein!" for 1899 Antikamnia patent medicine calendar. https://t.co/vDXX8qQ2I5

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2020-04-07

Although the Resurrection Men sold corpses, legally a body was not property. Bodies were often stripped; it was a felony to steal shrouds or silver coffin fittings. [Image-Thomas Rowlandson, 1775]
https://t.co/xOJ07l7mIp

3 8
2020-03-12


Who pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood
With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
Richard III c. 1591, I. 4. 45
[Skeleton ferrying souls of the damned, British Library, 1851]

9 24
2020-02-02