Spooky Victorian Costumes disguised the living from evil forces on Halloween night. The tradition was rooted in an ancient Celtic autumnal festival of Samhain when many believed spirits of the dead could cross into our realm. The earliest Halloween costumes were designed to terrify—and they delivered. By the 19^th century Halloween began morphing into the romantic and family-friendly celebration we know today. Many traditions softened but spooky Victorian costumes remained a major part of the holiday.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Most of the photos featured here are difficult to date without the usual reference points of clothing and other daily items. That said, these spooky Victorian costumes were homemade testaments to ingenuity and a taste for the macabre.

A Quick Note About Samhain

The Celtic festival known as Samhain was the biggest of the Celtic year, was called Samhain. (Depending on your source, it could be pronounced Sah-ween, Sow-in or Sah-win). Samhain appeared in Irish literature in the 9^th century, but many historians place it s origins much earlier. You can read more about Samhain and its Victorian counterpart in our post The Supernatural Ruled Victorian Halloween Festivities.

Halloween Comes To America

Early settlers brought a blend of Christian and Celtic traditions to America.

In Haunted Air, a fascinating photographic book of spooky Victorian costumes, author Ossian Brown writes:

“Halloween was reborn in America. The pumpkin supplanted the carved turnip; costumes grew ever stranger, and celebrants both rural and urban seized gleefully on the festival’s intoxicating, lawless spirit. For one wild night, the dead stared into the faces of the living, and the living, ghoulishly masked and clad in tattered backwoods baroque, stared back.”

By the early 1800s, Halloween was becoming a popular holiday. Washington Irving’s 1820 short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was one of the first distinctly American ghost stories centered around the holiday. Even Godey’s popular Lady’s Book published a piece in in 1836 that mentioned Halloween.

According to Nicholas Rogers author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, with waves of Irish immigrants in the 1840s, many of the earlier Halloween traditions took on a distinctively American flair. Dressing in spooky Victorian costumes was an essential part of the American celebration along with trick-or-treating door to door. Among the favorite pranks from harmless to chaotic were tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates. Toilet papering would come later.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: vintag.es.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Home-Made Costumes Heightened The Fear Factor

Spooky Victorian costumes were made at home with anything people could improvise. Bed sheets, fabric scraps, papier-mâché and early tape (invented in 1845) were staples for the inventive. Crude paints, wax and dyes finished horrific creations. Although anonymity was key, some wore their daily garb, but topped it with crude hand crafted masks.

According to Leslie Bannatyne, author of Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night, many of the rustic costumes also utilized tree branches, cornstalks, vegetables and anything else that inspired the creator.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Library of Congress..

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Graphic Fairy.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Library of Congress..

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Library of Congress..

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Library of Congress..

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Spooky Victorian Costumes, c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: BoredPanda.

Halloween Costumes Went Upscale

With industrialization, Halloween like every other holiday and aspect of daily life underwent massive changes. Spooky Victorian Costumes took on a different face. More high-end materials in all categories were readily available to the average person. Women’s magazines including Godey’s, featured instructions and patterns for homemade costumes. A costume book titled “Guide to Fancy Dress” inspired readers to select more elaborate masquerades.

Homemade costumes increasingly gave way to ones there were commercially made. The Massachusetts-based Dennison Manufacturing Company starting in 1897 made paper party favors and other items. In 1909 they published their first Halloween catalogue called The Dennison Bogie Book of Halloween decorations. In 1910 they also offered paper costumes.

By the 1930s companies including Ben A.S. Fishbach and Ben Cooper, Inc., manufactured mass-produced Halloween costumes for sale in general stores and the new department stores.

Characters from pop culture became increasingly popular, forcing Spooky Victorian Costumes to step into the shadows.

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