Costume History

Death Masks Death and injury caused by Halloween masks and false-face pranks.

Pinched Ashes Human ashes lost, strayed, or pinched.

Eating Holy Clay A disturbing ritual from Ireland where clay from graves is eaten to protect against disease and sin. Unfortunately more was ingested than just clay.

The Fortean Bride Fortean tales of brides and wedding weirdness

Kiss the Corpse and Then You Die The custom of kissing the corpse often led to death from infectious disease.

Transparent Fiction – The Myth of the Victorian Tear Bottle In which textual sources are used to put the stopper in the tear-bottle myth.

The Jealous Mother’s Ghost The jealous ghost of a dead mother returns to warn her successor to treat her children kindly.

The Woman in Black – Victorian Mourning as Criminal Disguise A look at the rogues’ gallery of crimes committed in the United States from about 1860 to 1929 under the cover of crape by The Women in Black.

Charles Dickens is Summoned to an Inquest Charles Dickens gives us an insider’s “slice-of-death” look at a Victorian coroner’s inquest on a dead infant.