Join the Rhode Island Historical Society and North Burial Ground on Thursday, October 24th, at 6 p.m. for a talk on the history of mourning jewelry with metalsmith and collector Sarah Nehama.
Nehama will give an overview history of mourning jewelry, from its early iconography in memento mori jewelry and objects to the early 20th century by examining the jewelry’s style, symbolism, and materials. Nehama will highlight pieces connected to Rhode Island and New England to showcase the jewelry’s range of memorializing political and public figures to friends and family.
Sarah Nehama is a working metalsmith and antique jewelry collector and dealer based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. In 2012, Sarah co-curated the exhibition, In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, MA. She authored the companion volume by the same name, and was a major lender to the exhibition. Since then, Sarah has lectured in person on the topic of mourning and sentimental jewelry at museums, historical societies, jewelry associations, and antique symposia in the US, Europe, and Australia. She has also given presentations online for the American Society of Jewelry Appraisers, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA, Victorian Hairworkers International, Lifting the Lid International Festival on Death and Dying, and numerous smaller groups of collectors and enthusiasts.
Registration is free, but required. Sign up now here.
Images provided by Sarah Nehama include: Mary Whitmore mourning locket, Betsey Robinson mourning locket, Card of lady in mourning, c.1890