Throughout the course of history, mourners have carried portraits with them to honor loved ones; this practice made its way to Colonial America in the mid 18th century. Portrait miniatures honoring the deceased could take many forms, such as rings, broaches, lockets, and small frame pictures. Prior to portrait miniatures, loved ones often received tokens of the deceased in the form of rings or lockets with inscriptions or images matching those in the coffin. The matching images and words created a type of bond, allowed surviving family to feel closer to their loved one. A shift in the eighteenth century from mourning death to celebrating life marked a change in the meaning behind tokens carrying morbid inscriptions and images. No longer did the tokens represent the bond between the departed and those left behind, they now represented a grim realization of mortality. The idea of gender also affected the view of mourning tokens; women were viewed as more emotional to carry tokens and society frowned upon men who carried such tokens. If men were to carry a token of a beloved one, an image of life rather than death would prove to be more becoming.