About

I love history. Since I was a child I have consumed its many stories like sustenance. During the past 20 years, I have traveled extensively to see places and artifacts connected with the people who I had come to love through the research and writing of historians.

In the 1990s, I began collecting Victorian mourning jewelry and early photography. At some point in the 2000s, I decided to write a book about my mourning collection, which is forthcoming, but I also wanted a place where I could make public my ongoing research into other aspects of my photography and mourning/sentimental jewelry collection. This is that place. I hope you enjoy it.

6369842907_f1da31a8ab_z — In my beloved Scotland, back in the days of Live Aid and Ultravox.

My favorite picture of myself as the adventurer, taken in May 1986 in the ruins of Dunollie Castle in Oban, on the west coast of Scotland. It was the seat of the MacDougalls, the Lords of Lorne, who once owned a third of Scotland.

Who was “Dying Charlotte”?

Charlotte was from a respectable British family of the Regency period—a clan that could afford gold and faceted jet mourning jewelry to be commissioned. Charlotte was probably a young woman when she realized she was dying, possibly of consumption. The simple style and shape of the brooch dates it to around 1815.

In the Collection Highlights below and on the Contact page, you can see the brooch, which reads on its reverse: "Dear Henry, accept this as a token of sincere Love from your Dying Charlotte."
Customizer.

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