The Rosson House at various times throughout the season is decorated in different themes. Everyday life is illustrated by the home’s Victorian furnishings, but on occasion visitors to the museum receive a special moment in time with such exhibit themes as Mourning in Victorian Times, Thanksgiving, Victorian Holiday, Valentine’s Day and more. A description of Mourning in Victorian Times, a Victorian Christmas in December and our special Wedding Theme is described below. Please call the Ticket Office at 602.262.5070 for further information.
Mourning in Victorian Times
Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 to 1901, gave her name to the Victorian Era, and it was Queen Victoria, with her strict personal code of behavior, who defined proper mourning conduct following the death of her beloved Prince Albert. Prince Albert died of typhoid in 1861 and from then until her own death in 1901, she mourned his loss. Many of the practices followed in the British Empire were also followed in the United States, although the great losses of the Civil War caused some of the rules to be modified or relaxed. A review of etiquette books written in the last quarter of the nineteenth century reveals that various regional differences existed, and that what was considered proper was becoming much more relaxed near the end of the century.
Death shadowed every day of life in the nineteenth century - three of every twenty babies died before their first birthdays. Those who were fortunate enough to survive infancy, had a life expectancy of only forty-two years. Not surprisingly, it was common to conduct lifes final ritual in the family home and the customs and rules of mourning were well-known to all.
Rosson House was built in 1895 and designed by A. P. Petit, a well-known San Francisco area architect who had moved his business to the up-and-coming city of Phoenix. The House was built for Dr. Roland Rosson and his family in the Queen Anne style with added Eastlake ornamentation. The interior spaces reflected the late Victorian eclectic tastes of the family.
Sadly, the Rossons lost two children during their marriage, their second who was born and died in 1883 and their last child who was stillborn in the House in 1896. This child is buried in the Knights of Pythias Cemetary.
The exhibit portrays a home funeral for an infant and further information on funeral and mourning rules and customs is displayed throughout the House.
Victorian homes were made bright and cheerful for the
Christmas holidays. The decorations were as simple or as elaborate as the owner cared to make them. Garland and wreaths were especially favored. If a family lived in the country, they cut their own greens
or dried plants from what was immediately available. In the cities, the markets carried a ready supply of holiday trees and greenery.
The formal parlor contains a surprise for the small children! Here the Christmas tree has been decorated
by the parents and older children for the younger ones. Between the 1870s and 1910, 
the majority of Christmas tree ornaments came from Germany. Some families added one new ornament each year to their collection. The rest of the trimmings were usually
homemade. Nestled about the base of the tree one will notice antique dolls and toys on display as the children’s gifts courtesy of The Arizona Doll & Toy Museum.
In the dining room, swags of fir adorn the fixture above an elegantly laid holiday table.
Garlands are draped along the fireplace mantle and on the table.
Upstairs the decor becomes more homespun. The children help “dress” their homes by making some of their own decorations, festooning their rooms in paper and yarn. Old accounts of Victorian Christmases mention “sugar plums”, sweets made primarily of sugar rather than fruit. You will notice several “sugar plums” amid the decorations.
Down the back stairway a popcorn garland has been hung. As early as 1860, popcorn was used for decorative purposes. At times it was painted gold to look like coined or hammered metal. Popcorn was also used as inexpensive gifts - during the late 19th century popcorn balls were one of the most popular forms of confection.
Sweet cookies have always been an important part of the Christmas festivities. The
kitchen of the Rosson House shows signs of the “cook” busy at work 
with gingerbread men. At the turn of the 20th century in America, most housewives had a fancy cookie mold from their European ancestors. Often these were used only at holiday time.
Although Christmas was a family occasion, New Years Day was a time for Open House . Every lady who was “anybody” stayed at home in her “best” to receive guests. Every gentleman was honor bound to call on every lady of his acquaintance.
Many of the customs of Victorian times and of our own families continue today to make Christmas unique for all of us. We hope you have the opportunity to visit the Rosson House during this part of the season and hope that your own Christmas creates lasting memories!
More Christmas Lore . . .
• The Germans brought the tradition of the Christmas tree to America, but it was in Victorian America that it would grow up to reach from floor to ceiling. The Christmas tree made its first appearance in 1850 when Godey’s Ladys’ Book printed a picture of Queen Victoria and her family’s tree. Around the turn of the 20th century, Christmas trees were popularized by annual accounts in newspapers and magazines.
• Christmas Eve was tree trimming time. Putting the tree in place was called “dressing the tree”. Descriptions of a typical Victorian Christmas tree included: candles, cookies and sweets, ribbon, homemade paper decorations, apples and nuts, popcorn and cranberries, and a few glass or metal ornaments. Gifts and toys, some wrapped in paper, were placed on the tree as well as underneath.
• Photographs taken around the turn of the 20th century show that the average American Christmas tree often had few store-bought ornaments. The first glass ornaments probably reached America around 1860 from Germany and were rare. By the 1890s, the first attempts at American made ornaments appeared in toy stores, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that America could compete with the gifted Germans.
• The candles on the tree were lit only on Christmas morning and perhaps once or twice again for parties. A bucket with water or sand was placed behind the tree in case of fire. In 1882, the world’s first electrically lighted Christmas tree was decorated in the New York home of Edward Johnson, a colleague of Thomas Edison. In 1895, President Cleveland added electric lights to his tree in the White House. Click Here! to learn more about the fascinating history of electric Christmas lights.
• Depending upon a family’s economic circumstances, the types of old-fashioned candy and cookie decorations hung on a Christmas tree could be profuse or modest. Either way, one special pleasure created by these edible decorations was saved for the Twelfth Night when they could be eaten. The final dismantling of the tree, so disappointing to today’s children, was once an exciting climax to the Christmas season.
“In thee My Choice Do I Rejoyce...”
- from an 1888 poem on wedding rings
The Victorian Wedding was a very sentimental affair with every detail and practice symbolic. The flowers, the cutting of the wedding cake, even the ribbon streamers over the bridal table were weighted with symbolism. The flowers, both for the bridal bouquet and those used for decoration, were especially important to the Victorian bride since, in those days, everyone was fluent in the language flowers, that is every flower had a special meaning attached to it. (Click Here! to learn more about the Language of Flowers); A bouquet was not simply a bouquet - it was a message as well. The Rosson House bride has composed her bouquet as a love poem for her new husband, choosing flowers that tell him of her Pure Love (white roses), Happiness (lilies of the valley) and Faithfulness (violets). Our bride has laid aside her bouquet on the table beside the nuptial setting and has gone to the dining room where the guests will meet her and the groom as they cut the wedding cake.
In the dining room, the table has been set for the traditional wedding brunch with the many crystal goblets, silver and serving pieces in use a century ago. As was customary, the table was also decorated with a spectacular flower display. In our graceful parlor, small white wrapped boxes stacked on a silver tray and attended by a winsome flower girl represent the gifts of the wedding cake each guest would take home. Upstairs, the classically Victorian master bedroom is in disarray! The bride has been packing for her “wedding journey” and gowns and lacy things are all about. Her going-away outfit is laid out ready for her to slip into. Finally, just outside the master bedroom, a table has been set up displaying all the wedding gifts the couple received. According to Victorian etiquette, to show wedding gifts to anyone but intimate friends and family was considered indelicate; hence the discreet table was placed out of the public view.
Plainly, many of the customs we still practice today have a long history even though we
may have forgotten their original meaning. White flow
ers (Pure Love) are still traditional for a bridal bouquet, ribbons are still tied together and brides
still cut their wedding cakes (symbolizing the bride's first “domestic duty” as a a married woman- although nowadays, the grooms may very well share in this “duty”). Please
come join us this June at the Rosson House for this symbolic and eloquent exhibit. Perhaps at the next wedding you attend, you may be the only one who really knows what it all means! Click Here! for a 1909 Wedding Cake recipe.
Informational “fun fact sheets” with Victorian wedding lore, legends and customs will be available for visitors at the Rosson House Museum Ticket Office. For hours and museum information Click Here!