# Mourning Ring for William Burnside

- By: Unidentified
- Date: 1788
- Medium: watercolor on ivory
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: image (irregular, almond shape): 1 1/8 x 1/2 in. (2.8 x 1.4 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Elizabeth Spencer
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=38387)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/85744526f073a63c4d64df27f0204280.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Miniature paintings memorializing a friend or family member grew popular in the nineteenth century when the death of Prince Albert sent Queen Victoria into deep mourning. A name and death date on a locket, pin, or ring marked the passing of a loved one, and artists sometimes mixed a lock of the deceased person’s hair in with the pigment. The paintings often showed the bereaved person next to a tomb or cinerary urn, as in Mourning Locket for A. R. and Mourning Ring for William Burnside, and sometimes included symbols of grieving such as a dove or weeping willow.