Death and Dying in the Victorian Era  

September 29 – November 10, 2012

Presented by the Denton Office of History and Culture at the Bayless-Selby House Museum

September 29 – November 10, 2012    Tuesday – Friday 10:00 A.M. -4:30 p.m.

Special night tour, October 27 for Denton’s Day of the Dead, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

The Victorian approach to death and dying was both more intimate and more elaborately ritualized than today. Visit the Bayless-Selby House Museum in Denton this October to learn about Victorian funeral rites and the Victorian practice of holding a wake in the home.

Learn how bodies were respected and how the occasion of death provided an opportunity to commemorate the lives of lost loved ones through customs both familiar and strange.

Included in the exhibit will be a number of fascinating artifacts that both relate to the exhibit theme and open a window on the history of Denton County. In addition to Denton County's collections, the National Museum of Funeral History has generously loaned a number of items from their collections for the exhibit.

Downstairs visitors see a typical wake presented in the parlor complete with a magnificently decorated wooden casket on wood panel biers, candle stands, flower arrangements and a Prei Dieu (prayer kneeler). 

In an adjacent room visitors will learn of the common Victorian practice of post mortem photography and the use of hair to create beautiful mourning objects. 

Also on display in this room is a wicker casket, used during this period for body removals.   

An embalming exhibit reflecting the Victorian practice of preparing a body in the home is respectfully presented upstairs in the master bedroom and includes a traveling post mortem cosmetic kit and embalming apparatus, tools and supplies.

All Office of History and Culture exhibits and lectures are free and open to the public.  Handicapped parking and accessibility is available.

The Bayless-Selby House Museum is located at 317 West Mulberry Street in Denton, TX.