“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a black comedy about two murdering aunts and their arsenic-laced wine that’s been performed and shown the world over. It might be the one tale that made arsenic poisoning, for better or worse, part of pop culture. But arsenic poisoning was around long before it hit the big screen.

Victorian women were prone to being poisoned by arsenic in the name of fashion. Dresses and accessories in the 1800s were, for a time, made a lovely green by dyeing them with a mixture of copper and white arsenic. The result was a beautiful dress but, too often, a miserable death.

You can see an arsenic dress in person this month at Waveland State Historic Site in Lexington as it explores the curiously morbid customs of the Victorian era in its Halloween-themed event, “Peculiar, Curious, Bizarre and Morbid Victorian Customs.” Part tour and part exhibit, the event puts the Greek Revival house to use as a tableau for 19th-century death customs that were quite possibly observed by the Joseph Bryan family and others who once lived in the 173-year-old mansion. 

No one knows for sure if lingering spirits of the Bryan family are joining in the, um, fun. If not there in the ether, the Bryans are ever-present in portraiture that hang in the rooms and hallways where customs centered on death and dying could have been observed in their day. 

I couldn’t wait to get at the story behind Victorian death customs that were alive and well in the Bryans’ day. So, I walked up the front steps of the mansion, knocked on the door, and walked inside. 

What You’ll Learn On The Tour

If there are five stages in the grief process, then the five or so stops on the death customs tour at Waveland couldn’t be more perfectly planned.

The tour begins with a look at “cabinets of curiosity,” the Victorians’ dark preoccupation with seashells, beetles, taxidermy, and dead bodies. It was a trend that would extend into the early 20th century with “Egyptomania” and the actual unwrapping of mummies at aptly-named “mummy unwrapping parties.”

Morbid, yes. But Victorians had their reasons — specifically, death itself. The mortality rate in the 19th century was 50 percent (or higher) for children under age 5. People often died young from accidents and common diseases, like tuberculosis and cholera. It was a fact of what was often a very short life. 

Because Victorian children couldn’t really be sheltered from dying, they weren’t sheltered from the idea of death. Our tour guide told us at our second stop that it wasn’t uncommon for “death kits” containing a little coffin and doll to be given to little girls as gifts. A mock kit, with a sheet over the doll’s face, sat on a small window table along the tour. 

Hair Jewelry, Bee Funerals, and The Fisk Casket

Grieving would last two years for a widow, maybe longer. Men in mourning often wore black armbands but were allowed to leave home and return to work. Women, in some circles, had to stay inside for at least six months without any callers or social events. Black dresses were the norm for women in mourning. 

Then there was “hair jewelry.” 

Victorians couldn’t get enough of the custom that involved wearing dark jewelry made with real human hair. Hair jewelry was so beloved that, according to our guide, no fewer than 50 tons of human hair were once shipped into England to make it. Visitors of the exhibit get to see quite a bit of this jewelry during one of the stops (Hint: it’s in the same room with the arsenic dress).

Also setting Victorians abuzz were “bee funerals,” the idea being that the bees from the hive of the deceased should mourn with everyone else. Reasons why were astoundingly superstitious; bees kept secrets, like a diary, and were an extension of the person who’s secrets they kept. Hives were often covered with black cloth and, sometimes, brought to the person’s funeral. 

You won’t find any live bees in the exhibit but can view an actual Fisk casket. This slightly intimidating object is a cast-iron, embossed casket that allowed bodies to travel long distances before burial in the days before embalming. Fisk caskets came in handy when famous politicians or other folk died and were paraded from town to town before being laid to rest. One famous Fisk resident was none other than “The Great Compromiser” and Kentuckian Henry Clay, who died in 1852.

Memento Mori And More

A final stop on the tour revisited the Victorian practice of memento mori, often photographs of the dead posed in peaceful and life-like ways. Photos of children who had already passed were common memento mori. They were commonly posed with family, or with books, or maybe a beloved toy. 

You’ll hear at this point a bit, too, about spiritualism, aka talking to the dead. Sensational acts like the Fox Sisters popularized spiritualism first as a party trick and then as a new brand of religion, with women leading this new “church.”

If You Go

Victorians may have believed in familiarizing young children with death, but Waveland isn’t recommending that for this tour. The tour description specifically states that the event is “not suitable for children under age 12.” 

All others who are keen on a walk through our forebears’ very-real fascination, and celebration, of mortal demise should step on up. The event is popular and there are only six tours left, including two on Oct. 22, two on Oct. 24, and two on Oct. 29. Tickets are $15 each. You can reserve yours by calling Waveland at 859-272-3611.

More about the “Peculiar, Curious, Bizarre and Morbid Victorian Customs” tour at Waveland State Historic Site can be found here. Waveland State Historic Site is located at 225 Waveland Museum Lane in Lexington, Kentucky.