# Mourning Pin for ER

- By: Unidentified
- Date: late 18th - early 19th century
- Medium: watercolor on ivory
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: image (oval): 1 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (3.8 x 2.9 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Elizabeth Spencer
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=38418)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/e37ef3f72b6fecee5d3b7f64cd755cf6.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, and sometimes included symbols of grieving such as a dove or weeping willow.