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mourning hat

Mourning Hat with Veil

Mourning Hat with Veil, c. 1914, silk, crepe, and cotton, 4 inches high (hat), Mary Hoyt, 1981.5.47.

Hat with a black silk veil and black silk crepe crown worn by women in mourning. Mourning clothes were an outward display of grief for the dead. Complicated rules for who wore what and for how long were outlined in popular journals or household manuals during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In the United States, mourning generally followed English forms into the 20th century.