Behind the Veil: The Dark World of Victorian Mourning

Ohio writer Chris Woodyard, author of the popular Haunted Ohio series and the off-beat history of Victorian death and mourning, The Victorian Book of the Dead, will speak on “Behind the Veil: The Dark World of Victorian Mourning,” discussing Victorian mourning rituals such as wakes, post-mortem photography, and the wearing of mourning clothing, that might seem strange and morbid to our modern minds.

Chris Woodyard is an Ohio writer and historian. She started her work on Victorian mourning quite early in her career--wandering around local graveyards as a child and doing a presentation on American funeral directing in 6th grade. She received her BA degree with Honors in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from The Ohio State University, where her emphasis was on art history. She is the author of nine books on Ohio ghostlore, the Haunted Ohio series, as well as three volumes of historical ghost stories, and The Victorian Book of the Dead, a book on the popular and material culture of Victorian mourning and death. She blogs at The Victorian Book of the Dead and as Mrs Daffodil, writing on dress history and the ephemera of fashion.