Abstract:
The multitude of flowers frames used in American mourning culture of the nineteenth
century up to World War I have left behind a vivid, visual history of the changing
perceptions about death. This thesis will explore how funeral flower frames reveal an
emotional and cultural shift from fears of hellfire and damnation, to a concept of restful
sleep for the redeemed soul and hope of being reunited in a better place. The use of
flowers at funerals evolved from a way to mask the physical and sensory ugliness of
death to messages of religious and sentimental beauty, to individualized and symbolic
representations of the deceased, and finally to conventional tokens for the funeral director
to use decoratively. This thesis will explore the relationship between the presence of wire
flower frames at funerals and the changing perceptions of death throughout the nineteenth
century and up to World War I.
