ABSTRACT
In the 1870s, it seemed very important to Americans to train children, particularly girls, in the experience and management of grief. Here was an emotion that had to be faced because, given prevailing mortality rates, it could be expected to be part of life among siblings, and it was widely believed that childhood could provide a seedbed for appropriate adult response. One result was that doll kits were available for sale, complete with mourning clothes and coffins. Fifty years later, what seemed important had changed dramatically. United States experts were now urging parents to keep children away from grief scenes, which were too intense for childhood exposure, while hoping to wean adults away from responding to death with useless, old-fashioned forms of mourning. And the doll kits were long forgotten.
