Museum of Mourning Art (closed)

Housed in a modern building modeled after Mount Vernon, the museum shows us how people have coped with death through the ages. The death of America’s first hero, George Washington, is illustrated with mourning pictures, ceramics and jewelry, including a valuable souvenir ring containing a lock of the president’s hair. A horse-drawn hearse, a 400-year-old instruction book on how to get to heaven, and objects engraved with emblems of death, such as angels, crossed bones and lambs, are on display. Mannequins in mourning clothes and jewelry adorned with pictures of the dead demonstrate how the rich and the common folk mourned and how much time and money they spent on honoring the dead. Don’t be afraid to bring the children to this small museum, the experience is not eerie but edifying.