Slifer House
Slifer House Opens Gone But Not Forgotten: Death & Mourning in Victorian America Exhibit
April 7 , 2008
The May 31, 1888 edition of the Lewisburg Chronicle reported the death of one of Lewisburg’s “most valued, useful and prominent citizens, Hon. Eli Slifer”. In an effort to more fully understand the behavior expected of the family members left behind, Slifer House Museum is producing an exhibit which explores the customs surrounding death and mourning during the Victorian period. The exhibit opens on Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m. and will conclude in late October. Season tickets for the series are available for the series at a cost of $35 per person. This will entitle the ticket holder a reserved seat for all seven lectures. Individual tickets are $6 per person. As seating is limited for each presentation, prepaid ticket holders will be given preferential seating.
The exhibit will transform the drawing room (or parlor) into an appropriately somber setting. The windows, mirrors, chandelier, and Eli Slifer’s portrait will be draped in black crepe. The Victorians were extremely superstitious and felt that if one looked into a mirror while a body lay dead in the home, that person might be the next one to die. A coffin from the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century will stand in the drawing room, echoing the custom of a viewing within the private home of the deceased. Guest curator, Galen Betzer, is in the process of installing an informative exhibit within the Museum’s gallery space with material on coffin plates, memorial cards, hair wreathes, mourning clothing, and styles of horse-drawn hearses.
The exhibit is accompanied by a lecture series which will be held on the third Saturday of each month, April through October. On Saturday, April 19, Lisa Lewis will be presenting the keynote speech on Victorian mourning customs. Ms. Lewis has studied the customs associated with the 19th century, prompted in large part by Queen Victoria. When her husband, Prince Albert, died prematurely, Her Royal Highness mourned his loss for the last forty years of her life. Ms. Lewis also touches on mourning costume, jewelry, tombstone inscriptions, and causes of death.
Future talks will include: Saturday, June 14, Ann Diseroad will be speaking on “Urn and Willow: The Language of Cemetery Art”; Saturday, July 19, Maxine Getty will portray “A Lady in Mourning: A 19th Century Impression of Life in the Midst of Death”; Saturday, August 16, John Deeben of the National Archives, will be speaking on “Documenting Death During the Civil War: Records from the National Archives”; Saturday, September 20, a re-creation of the funeral of Eli Slifer; Saturday, October 11, Mark Nesbitt will be lecturing on the ghostly apparitions seen at Gettysburg. All lectures will begin at 2 p.m.
The exhibit and lecture series are supported by a grant in the amount of $6,143 from the Union County commissioners’ Tourism Fund, which is administered through the Susquehanna Valley Visitors’ Bureau. The fund is distributed to not-for-profit organizations which encourage visitation from beyond a fifty-mile radius.
For further information, please call (570) 524-2245.
To learn more about the Slifer House, contact us by e-mail or call (570) 524-2245.
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