Object Type
This is a memorial card for Alexander Campbell (1808-1865), a surgeon at Dunse, Scotland. The paper has been embossed and pierced. Embossing was a skilled craft involving hand-cutting a metal die and carefully pressing dampened paper inside this mould to create the embossed image. It is mounted on black and purple, the colours associated with mourning.

Design & Designing
Large elaborate memorial cards such as this example seemed to have become popular around the 1870s. They were designed to be framed and hung on the wall by relatives and friends of the deceased. The majority of mourning cards were however small but equally elaborately embossed: they were produced in large numbers by printers and the appropriate name could then be added later. Embossing was used in a wide range of Victorian stationary: greetings cards, admission tickets and such like. During this period, the technique reached new levels of sophistication, with an almost 3-D sculptural quality. The motifs on this card represent a somewhat eclectic mix of the then fashionable gothic and classical elements, for example using the shrouded urn and the gothic canopies.

In the Victorian period photography had a special significance for memorial objects, as it was valued for capturing the true likeness of a loved one at a particular fleeting moment in time and therefore had particular resonance when considering the transient nature of life. A large number of memorial photographs survive: photographs of deceased when alive, or even when dead.