Sammy Zahn, Death and Dying in the Victorian Era- Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum

Calendar of Events | Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum (waukeshacountymuseum.org)

Join us on October 8th th for our Lunch and Learn – Death and Dying in the Victorian Era

The “Beautification of Death” Movement was a Victorian invention, introducing Garden Cemeteries, extravagant mortuary monuments and rituals. The mid-19th century was an era of incredible change brought on by industrialization and population surges, the advent of science, the spirituality movement compounded by disease and disparity. Join our Education Director, Samantha Zahn, to learn more about Victorian death beliefs pertaining to their mortuary rituals, cemeteries and their symbolism, and how all of this can be a gateway to relevant and fascinating research of historic populations.

Sammy is our Education Director and is currently a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, specializing in archaeology, cemetery and bereavement studies, and spatial analysis. She has worked on archaeological projects in the Midwest, including Eastern Europe—she spends as much time with the dead as the living.