An illustrated talk on the Victorian Obsession with Mourning and Death with author Paul Gambino

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil's Botany Chocolate Absinthe (https://devilsbotany.com/). Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Beyond the Veil: The Victorian Obsession with Mourning and Death with Paul Gambino

Beyond the Veil: The Victorian Obsession with Mourning and Death (Quarto, 2025), is a comprehensive exploration of how grief, ritual, and aesthetics profoundly shaped every aspect of Victorian life—from postmortem photography to mourning fashion, ghostly séances to grand necropolises.

This is not just a history of death culture—it’s a vivid exploration of how an entire society transformed loss into elaborate ceremony and art, and how that legacy continues to fascinate us today.

Topics addressed in the lecture are:

The Queen of Death: Queen Victoria’s reign of doom and gloom

Death Beyond the Monarchy: Sickness, infant mortality, and the average lifespan

Medicine as a Deadly Practice

The Art of Mourning: Dying’s influence over fashion and the arts

Spiritualism and Séances: Contacting the departed

Death in Black and White: Victorian Gothic literature

Memento Mori: Keepsakes of the dead

Daguerreotypes of Dead: Postmortem photography

Jack the Ripper: The Monster of Whitechapel

The Death of a Queen: England sheds the veil

As the author of five books on death culture, macabre artifacts, and Gothic interiors—including Morbid Curiosities, SKULLS, Killer Collections and The Art of Gothic Living—Paul Gambino brings a unique blend of historical research, storytelling, and insider access to some of the world’s most unusual collections.

About the Author

Paul Gambino has been an avid collector of the bizarre for over 20 years with an extensive collection of Victorian memorial photographs, antique funeria, mug shots, and vintage religious items (including a life-sized St. Sebastian and Virgin Mary salvaged from a 19th-century church in Pennsylvania). The past two decades of serious collecting have allowed Paul to gain the trust of some of the world’s most prominent macabre collectors. Paul Gambino's books include: MORBID CURIOSITIES: Collections of the Uncommon and the Bizarre, SKULLS: Portraits of the Dead, KILLER COLLECTIONS: Dark Artifacts from True Crime, THE ART OF GOTHIC LIVING: Dark Decor for the Modern Macabre and BEYOND THE VEIL: The Victorian Obsession With Mourning and Death.

The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

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Devil's Botany (https://devilsbotany.com/) is the UK's first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society's Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit's connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil's Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today. The Last Tuesday Society's curious Monday night lecture series is sponsored by Devil's Botany.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances. Please note, the museum of curiosities is not opened on Mondays during our lectures.

Description supplied by the event organiser.