Adieu to Mrs. Green--18th century mourning practices

It's always hard to say goodbye.  The time has come to bid Adieu to Anne Catherine Hoof Green of Annapolis.  Died March 23, 1775.  Mrs. Green has been one of our most beloved local women and you can find out more about her at the links below.  The local living historian who has portrayed Mrs. Green for about 15 years is retiring so it was only appropriate to send her off in the style that a woman of her stature deserves.

A walking tour of sites that were important to the Green family.  The tour started at State Circle across the street from the Maryland State House, which is the oldest continually operating state house in the country.

Old Post Office  in Historic Annapolis

From there, the tour progressed to the Jonas Green House which is under private ownership.  The family was so gracious in letting us use their home.  Two of Mrs. Green's sons were mourning in the first parlor where her obituary was read.  Then visitors progressed to the dining room where we had a few displays. I made a presentation about mourning dress and funeral traditions in the 18th century.  Some resources are listed below.

The Green House

From my presentation notes (Blogger isn't letting me cut and paste):

 

Newport Mercury 1-9-1775

Interesting article about a more simplefuneral procession: 

Newport Mercury 10-1-1764

Other ads about mourning materials being sold:

Maryland Gazette 6-14-1764

Providence Gazette 6-6-1764

New York Mercury 5-18-1767

This one is a particular  favorite in that it advertises hair plaiting for mourning jewelry.  We typically see plaited hair jewelry in the early 19th century though there is a piece that belonged to the Handcock family from the 1790s in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Extant baker's wrapper dated 1828

I ended up making funeral biscuits for the participants to snack on:

Other photos from the house:

Parlor with casket

Local minister and Mrs. Green's sons

Some items printed by Jonas and Ann

Mourning gloves and mitts

                                                                      Mourning Jewelry

Me with my display

From the house, we proceeded to St. Annes where we learned about burial traditions, who prepared the body and how it was prepared.  The Greens are buried at St. Anne's in unmarked graves.

St. Annes

Our last stop was The Reynolds Tavern across the street.  The tavern was founded in 1747.  We had a toast to Mrs. Green.  The tavern prepares a punch based on the familiar 18th century recipes.

Punch at the Reynolds Tavern

I had so much fun doing this event.  I've always been fascinated by funeral/mourning customs so this really enabled me to delve into the subject and to show off some of my collection of mourning accessories.  It was also a nice way to say goodbye to Diane in her portrayal of Mrs. Green.

I would encourage you to read the first article in my resource list that profiles her life.

Memento Mori by William Michael Harnett

Resources:

Books

In Death Lamented:  The History of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry

Mourning Dress:  A Costume and Social History

Articles

Ann Catherine Hoof Green--Maryland Archives

The Handsome Tokens of a Funeral:  Glove-Giving and the Large Funeral in Eighteenth-Century New England

"Often concerned in funerals:" Ritual, Material Culture, and the Large Funeral in the Age of Samuel Sewall--Colonial Society of Massachusetts

The Era of Excessive Mourning

The Colour of Mourning--All Things Georgian

Momentos Mori:  The Materials of Mourning--Colonial America 1607 - 1763

Colonial New England Funerals

The Lowest Ebb of Misery: Death and Mourning in the Family of George Washington

English Funeral Food

Recipe for Funeral Biscuits

Virginia Gazette March 1, 1737

Other primary accounts from Maryland State Archives

2025--Catching up on small projects and one big UFO!

I realized I hadn't posted anything here yet in 2025.  January and February are typically pretty busy--getting ready for our skill building weekend end of February.  I figured I'd just show my projects thus far in a single post.

1.  Satin bonnet.  This was my demo bonnet for a workshop I taught in MA early in January.  I've always wanted to do a satin bonnet so it seemed like a good time to get one done.  I really like it.  The duchss satin has so much body that it stays poofy!   I ended up trimming it with some shot silk taffeta I had on hand. 

2.    Miniature bonnet for Miss Prudence Pennyweather.  It was a fiddly little project but I like how it turned out.  Miss Pennyweather seems rather pleased.

3.  Mini quilted petticoat for Miss Pennyweather.  I started this last year but decided to get it done.  It was a fun little project.  I will be making a worsted English gown to go over it.

4.  Round eared cap.  Forgive the terrible photo.  This was another workshop demo project.  It's made of the same handkerchief linen that the partipants were given.  It'll be a nice middlin' sort cap.  Not pictured were all of the flower breast knots made as samples for the same workshop.

5.  Black trim for my fancy cap.    This is one of the accessories done for the gown I just finished.  I had trimmed this cap similarly with blue taffeta trim in the same style.  The trim is pinned on.  Needed the black so I figured I'd just do it again!

6.  One of several taffeta breast knots.  I love making these things.  I think the taffeta just works better than ribbon but it involves hemming the long edges.

7.  Silk gauze double ruffles with French lace.  Obviously I made a pair of these.  I dislike working with silk gauze.  It's too springy and doesn't finger press like organdy does but I wanted the ultra sheef fabric for these. I love how frothy they are!

8.  Silk gauze half handkerchief to go with the ruffles.

8.  Black taffeta sack.  Finally finished!  This gown has been almost finished since fall of 2023 and living on my dress form.  It needed some trim and the hem.  The petticoat was seamed and needed to be hemmed and pleated to the waistbands.  I'm debating whether or not to add some trim to the petticoat at some point.  I like it the way it is though.  It needs to be pressed.  I'm really tickled with this one as I've always had a soft spot for black dresses regardless of the time period.  This year seems like a good year to wear them! 

Bodice detail

Sleeve detail

I guess now that I've written all of this done, I've gotten a fair amount done!  I was feeling lazy and unaccomplished. LOL.  Now on to the next projects on the queue.

"A night of splendor and elegance. . ." Annapolis grand ball for General LaFayette 1824

 We decided to go to the ball in October which meant I needed a ball gown more appropriate for winter.  The one I made for early fall was thin cotton and I wanted silk.  When I first started researching mid 1820s garments, I really fell in love with this gown in the Metropolitan Museum and I thought I might reproduce it. I went as far as resizing the embroidery pattern and getting wool floss.  I got so busy that I knew I couldn't get the embroidery done so I changed plans.  Plus I had already made a white cotton ball gown.  

Moving on, I found so many other gowns worthy of recognition.  The 1820s are all about the trim.  What kind of trim would be easiest and most efficient timewise to do?  I really fell in love with gowns that had leaves on them.  Here is a sampling:

American wedding gown

Detail from gown in the Met

Full length photo of gown in the Met

Met gown on a mannequin

And finally my favorite which is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

Note how the leaves/stems for that typical "V" shape on 1820s bodices.  This bodice inspired me.  I ended up making larger leaves thus needing fewer of them.

The skirt trim appears to have ruched bias cut fabric between the two large pieces of cording.  I was hoping to copy this trim.  As time went on, I started scaling back --first deciding to eliminate the bias cut backing then finally reducing my trim to one strip of cording with leaves on it.  

I used the Laughing Moon 138 pattern as a basis which is the same one I used for my previous three 1824 gowns.

I had 4 yards of this silk left over from the 18th century sack I made last year so I figured I'd use it.  I ordered swatches of some coordinating silks to use for the trim and found the perfect one.

The heavy cording I found at the fabric store was just too dense to use for bodice trim so I made silk turn cord with a wide seam allowance to give it just a bit of dimension.  After that was stitched on to the bodice and sleeves, I cut some paper leaves to determine the size I wanted.  The first ones I made out of silk--16 of them--ended up being a bit larger than I wanted so I put them aside for the skirt.  The leaves were made by stitching two layers of silk together, pinking the edges close to the seam and turning them.  I then took a little pleat in the bottom of each (they mirror image each other in pairs) and stitched those.  Here is the bodice and sleeves:

The sleeves were done first then they were inserted into the bodice.  The sleeve seam and neckline are piped. The sleeve piping is smaller than the neckline piping.

Finished bodice front

Bodice back without closure.  These gowns were typically pinned or had ties.  You do find some with buttons.

I had some leftover cording from my corded petticoat which worked well for the skirt.  I had made the skirt then split it where I wanted to add the large piping.  Then the larger leaves were stitched on.

All the leaves were stitched on the ends.  I didn't want to stitch them flat as I wanted them to have some dimension.  I made a total of 72 leaves.  Had I kept them to the dimensions of the original gowns, I would've ended up having to make many more!

I decided to do ties for the back closure which meant raiding my fabric dye stash to make the 1/4 inch cotton tape coordinate with the gown.

Here is the finished gown:

Front

Back

1820s hair is always a challenge for me with my stick straight hair.  The following products work miracles for curls that will last for days:  

I set the front of my hair the night before using this curl cream on dry hair and 3/8 inch bendy rods.  I used 5 on each side and curled them toward my face.  I'm a back sleeper so this works well for me since it doesn't require curling the back.

Here is the finished result--dressed for my tea earlier in the day.  I used a long braid hairpiece and a bun hairpiece that I added over the small bun my hair made.  The side curls were positioned with hidden bobby pins.

Here are the accessories I wore for the ball:

The images on the reticule and the kid gloves were taken from extant 1824 souvenirs in the collection of LaFayette College.

Dressed for the ball:

The ball was "a night of splendor and elegance" as described the by Maryland Gazette in 1824.  It was held in the same venue as the 1824 event--McDowell Hall at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.  Here are a few photos from the ball:

It was indeed a night of splendor and elegance.  Kudos to the Historic Annapolis team for a wonderful event.

I was sewing up to the last minute but was pleased with the outcome. I really like this gown and while the design ended up simpler than my original vision, I was happy with it.