I was flipping through some cabinet cards at auction recently when I came across an unusual one. Cabinet cards normally bore a photo of folks dressed in their finest with the name of the studio printed in elaborate lettering at the bottom.
Most of the cards in the stack were just that. This one, though, had no photo of a woman in perfectly styled hair or a man in a tidy jacket and slim tie. It was an ominous black card with gold lettering, a dove hovering at the top with a message in its beak and a sacred poem at the bottom: “In loving memory of Mrs. H. Middleton, Died June 13, 1891, Aged 64 years.”
I learned later that this was a memorial, or mourning, card. I found two of them in the group of 19th-century cabinet cards, about 6″ x 4″ in size. The other also memorialized a woman – with the same last name, same age and same day of passing. I suspect that the two women were not related because the cards were made by different companies, both based in Philadelphia.
The first was made by Memorial Card Co., which was said to be the most prolific card manufacturer in the country, owned by Harry Gamble. The other card came from E.C. Stark and Co. (I found both men listed in an 1889 directory of stationers as having founded Memorial five years earlier.)
Gamble’s company got a favorable mention in the Pennsylvania Historical Review of leading merchants in 1886. The guide noted that his business was “the only house of the kind in the United States:”
Mr. Gamble has made a pronounced reputation throughout the United States and Canada, manufacturing all kinds of memorial cards which have now become so popular in fashionable and aristocratic circles. These goods are made with a care and attention to detail that place them among the very best produced, and their popularity is only equaled by their intrinsic excellence. Those desiring any particular emblem, or other device, are most cheerfully accommodated by this courteous and painstaking gentleman, and our readers are assured that everything that he undertakes is perfect in the highest style of workmanship. He also imports directly from the leading houses of Europe a full line of memorial goods, mourning stationery, etc.
By the time these cards were produced in 1891, memorial cards had been around for at least 30 years in the United States. They first appeared in England in 1840 and seemed to have become popular in 1861 after the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband.
In the United States, President Lincoln’s assassination spurred interest in the cards, which reached their peak between 1880 and 1900, with several companies peddling them. They are still being produced – some as remembrance cards, Mass cards or prayer cards – and they are collectible. They can be ordered from companies on the web.
Like cabinet cards, they were made of stiff paper with fancy lettering. Most were on black paper with gold lettering (some were on cream paper), and albums were made to hold them.
Some had photos of the deceased along with their name, birth and death dates. Others had monuments, floral arrangements and other images, such as the Bible in both of the cards at auction. Family members would hand them out at funerals or send to friends and relatives.
Companies would scour the obituaries in newspapers and send out samples of the cards to families of the deceased with all the relevant information and a poem. Families could order the sample or choose from other styles in a catalog. Family members were asked to buy the card (for 15 or 20 cents) or return it.
Memorial cards were among the many ways the dead were immortalized; another was postmorten portraits taken of them in coffins, propped up in a chair and more. These were pretty common in the 19th and early 20th centuries; children were often placed in what was called a “sleeping child” pose.
Postmorten portraits of African Americans from this period are said to be rare. At an auction last year, a 19th-century tin-type photo of an African American woman in a coffin sold for $950. Noted African American photographer James VanDerZee captured a number of these funerary photos of black people, primarily those who had money.
At auction once, I picked up a mourning ring with the photo of an African American woman, circa 1930s-1940s.
