Just as Lyndon Fraser, Research Fellow and Julia Bradshaw, Senior Curator Human History were submitting their paper on memorial objects to Records of the Canterbury Museum, a stunning mourning brooch was donated to the Museum.
This was a wonderful surprise but it was too late to add the information to the article, so instead we are sharing the details here.
The brooch was made to mark the death of Mary Bacon, who died in London on 17 June 1856, aged 66 years. It features a carefully styled piece of Mary’s hair, gold and tiny pearls in an elaborate jet and gold frame.
Mary Bacon was the mother of Canterbury settler Emma Barker who had emigrated to New Zealand on board the Charlotte Jane in 1850. When Emma’s mother died it was probably Emma’s younger sister Jemima who had the brooch made and sent it to Emma, trying in some small way to overcome the difficulties of grief and distance.
Emma’s husband Dr Alfred Barker was a keen photographer and took this photograph of Emma with Mary, her sixth child, which shows Emma wearing the brooch. It is likely that Emma sent a copy of the photograph to her sister in England, demonstrating their enduring bond.
Emma died within 2 years of this photograph being taken. She passed away on 2 October 1858, 5 weeks after the birth of her eighth child. She was 38 years old.
The brooch was donated to Canterbury Museum by Emma’s great granddaughter, Pam Bosworth, 162 years after Emma’s death.
For more information about memorial jewellery and photographs of objects in Canterbury Museum’s collection see Lyndon and Julia’s paper 'Any relic of the dead is precious: Nineteenth-century memorial jewellery at Canterbury Museum'.
