Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

Full mourning dress (right) and second stage mourning at the Adams Home ( All photographs were taken by me at the Adams home except the one of male mourning ) The death of a loved one in the 19th century was treated far differently than it is today. During Memorial Day Weekend (known at Greenfield Village as Remembrance Day ), 1860's era mourning is presented inside the Adams House. One must understand that death happened quite frequently during the Civil War, and not only due to the battles; more Civil War soldiers on both sides died of disease than getting shot ( a total of over 600,000 men died either in battle or of disease during the four years of the war). Too, infant mortality rate was extremely high, in some cases nearly 30%; death during childbirth was the number one cause of a woman's death; and then there were the "everyday" causes: consumption (TB), influenza, cancer, pneumonia, dysentery, etc. As you can see, death during the 1860's was so ...

Why the three names for this tiny structure? Well, when originally built, this hearse shed stood next to a graveyard on Bootland Hill in Newton, New Hampshire. There are differing opinions to when it was built; the placard in Greenfield Village states that it was built in the early 19th century, but a list I obtained from the Benson Ford Research Center gives its original date of construction as 1850. Either way, this building deals with a subject that most other historical villages rarely touch upon: death. The rate of deaths in the 19th century was great, especially for infants and toddlers. Much more than in our modern times, death was considered a fact of life and was dealt with quite differently than we do today. To carry the body from the place where it lay in state (usually in the parlor of the home of the deceased), the coffin was carried by pall bearers to the final resting place (more than likely the church graveyard), or, if the graveyard was too long a journey, a horse-draw...