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The Mourning Society of St Louis is a civilian reenacting group with an interest in mourning, death culture, Spiritualism, and the funeral customs of the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. This incredibly unique group, co-founded by Edna Dieterle and Katherine Kozemczak in 2005, plans educational events such as historically accurate funerals and wakes, and is the first of its kind. Join the conversation with Patrick, Edna, Katherine, and Sherri Morrow, a member since 2015. How do they build the atmosphere and set the scene? What can modern society learn from Victorian mourning customs? How does playing a character in mourning affect these ladies in their daily lives? Pour some tea, cover your mirror with a black drape, and hear about the inspiration, the research, and the planning behind events that even includes a live seance play based on documented moments in history! Visit BigSeance.com/244 for more info.

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In this episode:

Intro :00

The Mourning Society of St Louis is a civilian reenacting group with an interest in mourning, death culture, spiritualism and the funeral customs of the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Their main focus is public educational events. The Mourning Society has participated in events with our partners at the beautiful and historic Bellefontaine Cemetery, the Campbell House Museum, the St Louis Public Library, Jefferson Barracks Historic Site, Missouri History Museum, the General Daniel Bissell House, the Field House Museum, Lafayette Park Conservancy, and the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum at the Missouri Botanical Garden. :52

Guests for this episode are Edna Dieterle and Katherine Kozemczak, who co-founded the Mourning Society of St. Louis in 2005, along with Sherri Morrow, who joined the group in 2015. 4:15

Katherine tells the story of how the Mourning Society came about. Her and Edna were already volunteers on the board for a historic mansion in St. Louis. But the main inspiration started with Edna's trip to a home Mississippi. 4:55

Katherine and Edna\u2019s growing collection of artifacts and accoutrement, including coffins!\xa06:03

In 2015 their educational mourning events expanded to include funerals at the beautiful and historic Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, and wakes at the the Campbell House Museum. 7:18

A truly unique group, and probably the first of its kind! 9:01

More on the Victorian funeral events at Bellefontaine Cemetery, including a service in the chapel, and educating participants on the cholera epidemic in 1865. 10:00

A striking and moving sight that includes an undertaker with a historic and period hearse. 12:21

The research and education that goes into the planning of events. 13:50

Sherri on why she joined the Mourning Society. \u201cThese are my people.\u201d 14:47

Finding (or sewing) Victorian clothing! 15:23

Carpe Diem. Facing mortality and how playing the role of \u201cmourner\u201d affects these reenactors in their daily modern lives? 18:22

When people just don\u2019t appreciate or understand it. 23:48

Tear Catchers and Wearing Black. Misconceptions about Victorian mourning customs. 27:14

\u201cA lot of times, women did not attend the funerals at all, because men were like, \u2018They can\u2019t control their emotions and they\u2019re going to cry in front of everybody.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Katherine 32:03

Black drapery, superstitions around mirrors, and marking the house to know a death has occurred. 34:03

The custom of placing coins over the eyes of the deceased. 37:09

Events at the Campbell House and the Magic Chef Mansion, including a wake, mourning customs, medical aspects of Victorian mourning (including live leeches!), and post mortem photography. 38:22

The Spiritualism event at the General Daniel Bissell House, which includes spirit communication devices, and a seance play which incorporates documented accounts of seances from the period! 40:03

Volunteering or joining the group. \u201cIt\u2019s just like a bad dance, you know? Too many ladies and not enough gentleman. We never have enough people to carry the coffin.\u201d \u2014 Katherine 44:09

Drawing people in, sneaking in education, and making it fun. 47:45

Building the atmosphere and setting the scene. \u201cWe try to leave people with an impression of what it was really like and not like a romanticized idea of what it was like. We definitely had people cry on some of the tours before, because I think they go in thinking it\u2019s going to be spooky, and sometimes it\u2019s incredibly sad.\u201d \u2014 Katherine 48:28

\u201cWe were all like, \u2019Whoa. We\u2019re doing something here.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Katherine 50:03

Connecting emotionally with things from the past. \u201cI think there\u2019s a tendency to disconnect from things that haven\u2019t happened in living memory.\u201d \u2014 Katherine 51:03

Children died all the time, but it doesn\u2019t mean they weren\u2019t just as devastated by the loss as we would be today. 54:35

Patrick imagines who his Mourning Society character would be and how he would dress. 56:03

\u201cI started doing this because I was very passionate about history, and I love finding out things that I didn\u2019t know before. And this definitely gives you a chance, when you do the research, to just plunge into it.\u201d \u2014 Sherri 58:31

When it\u2019s time to take off the veils, pull your iPhones out and have fun! 59:14

\u201cWho are we going to bury?\u201d \u2014 Edna 59:55

Expanding to other time periods and movements, like women\u2019s suffrage. 1:00:37

The Mourning Society of St. Lous is approaching their 20 year anniversary! 1:02:43

Outro 1:03:57

A special THANK YOU to\xa0Patreon supporters\xa0at the Super Paranerd and\xa0Parlor Guest\xa0level! 1:05:15

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Looking for more Mourning Society?

MourningSociety.com

Facebook: @MourningSociety

Instagram: @MourningSocietyStL

Beyond the Grave: St. Louis Mourning Society keeps funeral traditions alive (West News Magazine)

St. Louisans Are Undertaking A Reenactment Of Robert Campbell's Wake 140 Years After His Death (NPR)

The St. Louis Mourning Society teaches visitors about 19th century funeral and mourning customs. (PBS)

Patrick has two photo albums (Album 1 & Album 2) from visits to Bellefontaine Cemetery (Flickr)

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The Big Seance Podcast can be found right here, on\xa0Apple Podcasts,\xa0Google Podcasts,\xa0Pandora,\xa0Spotify,\xa0TuneIn Radio,\xa0Amazon Music,\xa0Audible,\xa0iHeart Radio, and\xa0YouTube. Please subscribe and share with a fellow paranerd! Do you have any comments or feedback? Please contact me at\xa0Patrick@BigSeance.com. Consider recording your voice feedback directly from your device on my\xa0SpeakPipe\xa0page! You can also call the show and leave feedback at\xa0(775) 583-5563\xa0(or\xa07755-TELL-ME). I would love to include your voice feedback in a future show. The candles are already lit, so come on in and join the seance!

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