Victorian Burning Dresses on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Archduchess Mathilda of Austria died at the young age of 18 on this day (June 6) in 1867. But, it is the manner in which she died that we are interested in. The archduchess had put on a gauze dress to go to the theater. Before leaving for the theater, she wanted to smoke a cigarette but shortly thereafter her father, who had forbidden smoking, approached her, and she hid the cigarette behind her dress, immediately setting light to its very flammable material and burned her to death. Her death was witnessed by her whole family. 

These types of deaths were not uncommon back then. 

"In the mid-19th century, women wearing the style of the day would burst into flames if their dress caught fire — and I do mean burst. Their dresses were so dangerously flammable that if they caught fire, it would spread in an instant, sometimes leading to groups of women dying at the same time." Rae Nudson

The gauze dress that the Archduchess wore was very flammable, as were other fabrics popular at the time, such as  bobbinet, cotton muslin and tarlatan. These materials were light and allowed air to travel through easily (think of the same materials used in bridal gowns and tutus for ballerinas). The crinoline petticoats alone are said to be responsible for 3000 deaths. In an age before electricity where fireplaces, candles and gaslight were ubiquitous, women burning up was a common occurrence. 

Ballerinas, as they performed close to gas lighting, were particularly vulnerable. In 1862, famous ballerina Emma Livry burned alive when her skirt grazed a gas lamp.

In Victorian times women also liked green dresses. However, the green dye used to make those dresses often contained arsenic. "In 1861, a 19-year-old artificial flower maker named Matilda Scheurer was felled by the simple act of working with the dye. She convulsed and vomited, then foamed at the mouth in a harsh shade of green. It was later discovered that there was arsenic in her liver, lungs, and stomach. The level was so high that even the whites of her eyes were tinged green." Laura Allan

The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible

Heinz Schmitz