mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
Mourning is a strange thing, and different cultures deal with it in vastly different ways. But there’s a reason people associate the Victorians above all with morbidity and death, and one of them is memento mori like this:
The fact is, postmortem photographs like this were taken more than any other kind of photograph in the Victorian era — especially in the U.S. — and in many cases these carefully-arranged, meticulously staged pictures were the only ones ever taken of their subjects. From Stanley Burns’ book Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America:
These photographs were a common aspect of American culture, a part of the mourning and memorialization process. Surviving families were proud of these images and hung them in their homes, sent copies to friends and relatives, wore them as lockets or carried them as pocket mirrors. Nineteenth-century Americans knew how to respond to these images. Today there is no culturally normative response to postmortem photographs.
So, given your lack of a “culturally normative response” to these pictures, dear reader, we advise the faint of heart among you to click elsewhere.
“Child in Coffin at the Death Room”
From PBS.com: “This portrait appears to have been taken in the formal parlor of a family home. The parlor, or “death room,” was an important part of funerary rituals for most of the 19th century, the place where deceased family members were laid out for final respects. This image dates to c. 1890-1905, a time when many funerals were still taking place at home. Soon, however, death would begin to leave the home and by end of World War I most Americans will receive their health care in doctor’s offices and hospitals and most funerals will take place in funeral homes. As the funeral “parlor” came into vogue, the home parlor was rechristened a “living room.” A 1910 issue of Ladies Home Journal declared the “death room” to be a term of the past.”
Also, did you notice the strange silhouette on the right side of the picture? That’s the photographer’s assistant, holding the casket lid open for the shot.
For me, though, more intriguing than the dead are the living who pose with them — usually stoic and reserved, it’s the little bit of emotion their faces betray that make these portraits so compelling … and heartbreaking. (Above and below: siblings with their brothers.)
Another common theme in Victorian-era postmortem photography was the staged scene of mourning, which was often highly melodramatic, like this one, “Orphans at Their Mother’s Grave”:
The photograph above also reveals another Victorian preoccupation: spirit photography. Likely a double-exposure featuring an “actress” portraying the childrens’ mother, this style seems to me a highly theatrical way to deal with one’s grief.
Another style was the photograph in which the dead were posed to look alive — the first in this series, at the top of this post, is an “eyes-open” example. The use of props like this man’s newspaper was less common; perhaps it was included to distract from the unnatural rigidness of his hands, among other giveaways.
Comments (123)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Wow. We sure look at death differently these days. These photos remind me of the ‘death photos’ from the movie ‘The Others’. Creepy yet fascinating
posted by JaneM on 5-6-2008 at 11:52 am
I love these posts! Keep them coming. Does that make me creepy?
posted by Carmen on 5-6-2008 at 12:09 pm
JaneM – I was just thinking the same thing about The Others. These pictures aren’t too bad except for the first one. Somehow having a dead person’s eyes open staring at you is eerily creepy… like they can see you.
posted by CK on 5-6-2008 at 12:10 pm
Strangly people still actually do this. About 8 or so years ago I worked in the photo-lab of a local grocery store. The majority of the pictures we got were hunting photos with deer hanging from trees being gutted or photos of Granny at the funeral. Very weird. The worst one, and I’ll never get it out of my head, was one day trying to color balance a print. For those who don’t know, there is more to it than just sticking the film in and hitting print. Depending on how long the film sat around or what the light was like when the pictures were taken there is color correction to do, people can come out with a picnk or yellow or blue cast to them. Anyway I couldn’t get the baby in the picture to look any less yellow, then I realized he was dead. He was not in a coffin, just on a piece of black cloth. I had thought he was sleeping but when you looked clost there was something just not right about his face. So sad . . . not to be selfish, but I wish the people who brought that roll in had warned us, I was only 18 at the time and totally unprepated for something like that.
posted by Em on 5-6-2008 at 12:14 pm
Jane and CK –
Yes, The Others uses these photos to great effect — probably the scariest part of the film!
posted by Ransom Riggs on 5-6-2008 at 12:27 pm
That first kid seem like he’s staring at me. So creeped out.
posted by Tricia on 5-6-2008 at 12:30 pm
@Em:
I used to work in a 1-hour photo lab in a small town drug store. We routinely processed photos for the local police. I once saw a series of photos taken by the police of an elderly gentleman who had apparently dropped dead in his house. A couple of days later, in a non-police roll of film, the same old man lying in his casket.
Both sets of photos creeped me out. I could understand why the police would want the photos they had, but I didn’t know why anyone would want photos of the body at the funeral. Now it makes a little more sense.
posted by Ohne Hosen on 5-6-2008 at 1:14 pm
Actually, there was a similar custom involving painted portraits of deceased loved ones.
Because painted portraiture and photography were both very expensive then, it’s not uncommon to find that a portrait from that era any sort occurred more often when a family member was deceased, especially if the individual was young. Unless the family was truly rich or in some way connected to an artist (photography or paint), families really couldn’t afford to create these sorts of stopped-in-time, tangible memories until after someone had passed on to keep them, in some small way, alive for the family.
Following this note, a museum not too far off from my hometown boasts a life-sized painting of a little boy that was done from his momento mori. They have a copy of the small photograph near the painting, and in both his eyes are open.
It always gave me shivers.
posted by ACute Angle on 5-6-2008 at 1:37 pm
Last night, in my History of the Beatles class (Best. Class. Ever.), my teacher showed us a copy of the National Enquirer that he’d kept from the week John Lennon was killed. The cover had a picture of John in the morgue on it.
Part of me didn’t really want to look at the picture – I would have much preferred to picture John alive in my head – but the other, morbid, part of me looked anyway.
I know it’s not quite the same thing as these photos, but it was just kind of funny that this post came after seeing the picture last night.
Creepy! Love it!
posted by Melodye on 5-6-2008 at 1:45 pm
stunning. great post.
posted by heather on 5-6-2008 at 2:22 pm
Yes, the first picture creeps me out, but the girl standing with her dead little brother breaks my heart. The look on her face hints at a betrayl. It’s as though she’s angry with the photographer for thaking the picture in the first place.
Thanks for the post.
posted by Bethany on 5-6-2008 at 2:39 pm
Sorry, I meant betrayal.
posted by Bethany on 5-6-2008 at 2:40 pm
My extended family in Utah often takes photos at funerals and viewings. I admit, I have been photographed standing next to my grandmother’s open coffin. Definitely felt kinda weird doing that… I found it most difficult to decide what kind of somber expression to have on my face, however, after the photo was taken I looked at it only to see my sister smiling happily.
Not my thing.
posted by Anne on 5-6-2008 at 2:44 pm
I’m going to have bad dreams tonight, I know it!
posted by beth on 5-6-2008 at 3:08 pm
My grandmother takes pictures of people in their caskets. Then she shows them to everyone for months afterwards and says things like how “beautiful” they looked.
They never look beautiful. They never look like themselves. I don’t get it at all.
However, I also don’t get touching, hugging and kissing people in their casekts either. To me, once they are dead, the body is really nothing. Seems wrong to touch and hug all over it.
posted by Karen on 5-6-2008 at 3:30 pm
Photographs back in the day were very time consuming. Children and other folks would literally fall asleep while posing. Many postmortems of children are actually sleeping children. Caskets are pretty much the only way to tell if the subject is actually dead.
posted by Christy on 5-6-2008 at 4:18 pm
My Grandparents had a son born with an enlarged heart who died of pneumonia when he was 6 mos old. They hadn’t had his picture made yet so the had him embalmed and took the family to a portrait studio for some family pics…yikes!
posted by Amber on 5-6-2008 at 4:23 pm
Let’s not forget the most famous of the memento mori:
*EDIT* Crap! It won’t let me post an image link. Oh well, it was the poster to Weekend at Bernie’s.
posted by Austin on 5-6-2008 at 4:32 pm
OOh…very creepy and yet fascinating at the same time. Recently, my wife was asked by her cousin to take some photos of a dead relative (the cousins’ mother) in her coffin. She needed them for some crazy reason and didn’t bring a camera…who could forget that!? Anyway, we were totally creeped out by her request and were left scratching our heads on that one…
posted by Eric on 5-6-2008 at 4:42 pm
While photos “back in the day” did take longer to expose than today, in most cases it wasn’t long enough to fall asleep. Some photographic methods developed in the mid 19th century would have measured exposure time in seconds rather than minutes. So, if there was a lot of doubt about whether a child was sleeping or dead, the type of picture could lend a clue.
However, the biggest clue is the numerous small children photographed who are alive. If the exposure time was so long that a child could fall asleep, movement during that time frame would make a very blurry picture. If you’ve ever tried to get a small child to sit still for a picture, you know this is quite a task. Given the number of clear pictures of living children taken during the era of the death photos in Ransom’s article, I’d have to argue that you could probably make some good guesses about living status without a casket in the picture.
Though the casket undoubtedly helps. :)
posted by kate on 5-6-2008 at 4:56 pm
Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!
posted by DNA on 5-6-2008 at 5:39 pm
Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!
posted by DNA on 5-6-2008 at 5:39 pm
I’ve seen some of the ones with the eyes painted open…very sad. Some people couldn’t afford a photo until it was too late to have one made of a living person.
posted by Jennifer on 5-6-2008 at 6:06 pm
I don’t think they are creepy, just sad.
What creeps me out is how we now insist on making our dead look like they are just sleeping, using plastic molds with sharp points to keep the eyes closed and make the mouth hold that weird smile, then slather them with so much makeup it’s hard to recognize them.
posted by Pam on 5-6-2008 at 6:35 pm
It doesn’t creep me out in the least bit. VERY fascinating though
posted by Melissa on 5-6-2008 at 7:10 pm
Taking photos of the dead at funerals is still quite common in the South, especially among blacks and (traditionally) low-class whites.
I was shocked and fascinated when I learned of this (though Southern, I come from a different milieu), and approached a few publishers about doing a “coffee table book” of collected photos.
posted by mike on 5-6-2008 at 7:19 pm
the third one looks like tay zonday
posted by andrew on 5-6-2008 at 8:46 pm
When I was about 11 years old, I remember browsing through the book shelves in our city’s public library. I came upon one old ragged book…it was black with no cover or title. When I opened it, I got the shock of my young life. It was filled with pages and pages of these memento mori photographs. I never forgot that moment.
posted by Kevin on 5-6-2008 at 9:15 pm
fasinating!
posted by Leah McChesney on 5-6-2008 at 10:13 pm
In all of my years in wedding photography, I have never seen how disturbing that is…
posted by Furious Photographers on 5-6-2008 at 10:23 pm
Exposure times grew shorter through the (19th) century. Civil War photographs are posed, views of where some battle had occurred, or photos of those killed. Studio portraits were posed using neck braces to help hold the subject in position, hence the regular “grim” expressions. The actual exposure could be frelatively short, but the set-uop, including focusing would still take minutes rather than seconds.
posted by Gary Sargent on 5-6-2008 at 10:25 pm
good lawdey Im glad times have completely changed.
posted by Death Quiz on 5-6-2008 at 10:36 pm
As I read it, I expected the last sentence to read: The use of props like this man’s newspaper was less common; perhaps it was included to distract from the unnatural rigidness of his hands, among other dead giveaways.
posted by mr goathead on 5-6-2008 at 11:03 pm
It’s definitely a tradition among blacks to take pictures of the deceased either at the viewing or at the funeral. In my family, it’s not strange to stumble upon such pictures in an old photo album. When my great-grandma died, my mom sent my brother and I to the church early so that we could get pictures of her before everyone arrived. I always wondered why we kept pictures like that, but I guess since I grew up with it I never really questioned it. Also, we bought a picture of MLK, Jr. in his coffin that we bought as a souvenier in Tenn.
posted by Carmen on 5-6-2008 at 11:14 pm
Death simply is.
It’s not scary unless you don’t understand which world you are living in.
posted by thetruth on 5-6-2008 at 11:16 pm
Keep in mind that photography wasn’t an everyday event like it is today. Families could find themselves surprised by the death of a loved one, and, finding that they had no photographs of the recently deceased, want to capture their image before they were gone forever.
posted by Tim on 5-6-2008 at 11:25 pm
I am an Antiques Dealer and am intriqued by most things from the Victorian Era. I have only once found one of these photos at an Estate and the subject was a mother with her infant. Both died during Childbirth and the photo was sad, but so typical of this type. Of course, I sold the photo on eBay. It was interesting that the family members who sold me the photo had no idea who the woman was, yet it was carefully preserved with all of the family’s mementos. Thanks for this insightful article and for the references. janieruth.com
posted by Jane on 5-6-2008 at 11:26 pm
I don’t believe that these are all real.
posted by sachin on 5-6-2008 at 11:50 pm
As odd as this is – it still happens today. My sister is a videographer and amongst the “normal” weddings, pageants, etc that she films, one of the more common requests she gets is filming funerals. Her clients will often request that she film not only the service, but the body in the casket.
posted by ginauf on 5-7-2008 at 1:09 am
great commentsand great post. When i was at my great grandfathers open casket funeral, i said to my dad, who was standing next to me viewing my grandfather,” hey, even he’s dressed up nice” (i was 6 or 7)
The image of my father laughing out loud in front of his grand-father in law casket is one that still makes me laugh….
posted by micah b on 5-7-2008 at 1:12 am
“Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face! ”
Before plaster they kept your head.
posted by Tyler on 5-7-2008 at 1:17 am
Very good,I like those pictures.
posted by liusichi on 5-7-2008 at 2:56 am
I wouldn’t say these kinds of photos are creepy, they’re just ridiculous. The one with the brother and sister is really beautiful, though.
When my grandfather died, my grandmother wanted us to take pictures of him in the coffin. I think it’s because she really likes mourning. I’m not a big fan of these photos…
Btw, I’m from Europe, so I guess it’s not just a US thing?
Oh, and your Captcha really sucks. /:
posted by XR on 5-7-2008 at 4:04 am
There’s a great book called “Wisconsin Death Trip” by Michael Lesy (Pantheon publisher) containing these sorts of photos as well as small snippets from newspapers about macabre and/or strange happenings in the midwest around the turn-of-the-century.
posted by tahlula on 5-7-2008 at 7:15 am
well, i wouldn’t call that creepy… just informative to some extent. but not really creepy
posted by wahooha on 5-7-2008 at 7:24 am
@Carmen you are correct in the african american community me being a member. @ funerals we take tons of pictures I’m always asked to photograph passed away relatives. It could also be a generational thing among us I don’t see many of the younger ones asking for pics at funerals.
posted by CAL on 5-7-2008 at 8:12 am
That girl sitting next to her dead brother looks a little fishy. Do you think she had something to do with her brothers death? I want the investegation reopened. And the set of twins , I couldt imagine what that alive brother is feeling. The look on his face is horrid.
posted by Jason on 5-7-2008 at 8:24 am
The subtext of this article seems to be that we look at death the correct way today, and a “theatrical” way of dealing with grief is some creepy artifact to be looked down upon. (Using theater to deal with emotions? Shocking! What’s next? Music?) But I’m not sure that our look-the-other-way attitude toward death is obviously better. It actually seems more irrational — we have a superstition that talking about death openly is dangerous.
posted by Brian on 5-7-2008 at 9:40 am
I once saw a scan of a newpaper article. The article was about the funeral of a hip-hop record company executive, who had been killed. His body had been placed behind the wheel of his yellow Lamborghini Murçiélago. His eyes were open and bulging. The contrast with his black face made the white eyeballs stand out even more.
The car was sold on ebay.
posted by PeterJohn on 5-7-2008 at 11:40 am
The practice of post-mortem photographs was also common in Europe, in some parts until well after the second world war, even to the present day. My girlfriend’s grandmother, for example, finds it perfectly acceptable to have a framed picture on display of the hearse that carried her dead husband’s corpse to his funeral. There were also pictures taken of him in the casket. This was 1995.
posted by Toon on 5-7-2008 at 1:51 pm
In my family they take pictures of the deceased and store them in an album no one ever looks through. When I was six I took a picture of my stillborn baby brother to class. My teacher called my parents and I was told never to bring anything else to class. I never knew why kids in my class got so scared. I thought he looked cute. Then two weeks ago I’m now twenty I was looking through my friend’s cell phone and saw pictures of her deceased grandma in a coffin..I dropped the phone. I see what is soo creepy now.
posted by Christy on 5-7-2008 at 2:02 pm
These break my heart! :(
Esp. the ones where the siblings are made to pose with their dead brothers. I can’t imagine.
I have to agree with Tim though; back then photos just weren’t so common. I can see how a mother would want some picture, ANY picture to remember her baby.
Aw, so sad!
posted by mrs.djs on 5-7-2008 at 2:14 pm
Those are very disturbing photographs. That stuff is just plain weird.
posted by Rick on 5-7-2008 at 7:34 pm
its true, these kinds of photos are still taken in many parts of europe. i lived in portugal and when my brother died (about 8 years ago), my mother took dozens of photos of his grave decorated with flowers. i always thought it was strange, but at least she didnt take pix at the funeral. if i had to look at a photo of his open casket right now, i would be absolutely hysterical. i was a kid when it happened and was left traumatized. the (living) siblings in these pix must have suffered so much. i wouldnt want such painful memories documented like that.
posted by mar on 5-7-2008 at 8:00 pm
Most of this photographs were take to keep a good memory alive.
The dead people within this pictures are portreyed as if they would be alive.
This was necessary, because in the old days people had not so many photos of them, so some of the dead people were photographed for the first time to keep the mamory about them alive.
posted by Cute Doreen on 5-7-2008 at 9:10 pm
“Orphans at Their Mother’s Grave” appears to be part of a stereogram, aka a 3-D picture. Do you have a link to the complete card?
posted by ham on 5-7-2008 at 10:06 pm
Dozens of pictures like this are taken every day in North America! It is no longer a thing of the past, in fact, there are tons of websites where you can see pictures. I know several people who keep pictures of a dead loved one.
Yes, nowadays, when you have a stillborn child, they are lovingly washed and dressed and posed for family photos. For parents whose angels went straight to heaven, it’s often all they have – a whisper of a broken promise, a shattered dream. It’s not creepy. It’s a way to say, “You were here. You meant something to me”.
posted by Marion on 5-7-2008 at 10:54 pm
Did any notice the left leg of the little girl in the coffin. It looks like a toremented face at the bottom.
posted by justsumcracker on 5-7-2008 at 11:58 pm
waw! i’m scared. lol. they are creepy. and gee, i had to see it at this time,it’s almost midnight. lol, i do get scared easily. :(
posted by randiss chinny on 5-8-2008 at 10:38 am
This doesn’t seem creepy or sad to me but a part of life. We filmed my grandfathers funeral for members of the family that were in active service overseas and weren’t able to make it. It seems a similar thing to this, a way of saying this person has died and we want to remember the person that was alive.
posted by Binx on 5-10-2008 at 10:22 am
I think that my family still has a pic of my grate-grandfather in a coffin. Used to be popular in Russia.
posted by Larisa on 5-13-2008 at 3:41 pm
someone earlier posted about feeling awkward having to decide on what sad expression to make when being photographed by a relative’s casket- although slightly different, this reminded me of when I visited Dachau and a family was photographing their small son next to the original crematory ovens, making him pose over and over again to look as sad as he could. It is interesting that a place associated with death would be treated as a postmortem photography without a corpse.
posted by cheryl on 5-14-2008 at 8:32 pm
Oh wow that is freaky. I wonder if people still do that today?
posted by Jenny on 5-18-2008 at 10:25 pm
Ive never really thought of this practice as odd, my family come from Macedonia, (Im not quite sure this is a custom, but it has happened in my family) and when someone died, photos were taken at the funeral. They are kept in an old envelope but ive been instructed to never look at them. I guess its a final keepsake, like a baby’s tooth to remind them of childhood, except the photos remind them of a life. Ive never really thought of this as morbid, just something to hold onto as a memory.
posted by eva on 5-23-2008 at 8:02 am
Very interesting. Whatever brings people comfort, I’m all for it. For me, personally, it would be too sad to have a “dead” picture of a loved one. But, to each his own. I think the pictures in the story are beautiful because they show so much history. The types of clothes, etc. Like they said, it could be the only picture they would unfortunately have of them.
posted by Dianne on 5-23-2008 at 10:54 am
Manticore of Love:
I had a wonderful movement this morning. Pitched the biggest loaf.
posted by Fromulated Momulated on 5-29-2008 at 4:00 pm
In 1978 a friend and I were in a class along with a young man. During a break he started showing pictures of his baby girl. There were many pictures. The last two showed her in a tiny white coffin.
He never said a word about her death, only how beautiful she was (of course we agreed, she was perfect), how old she was and her name. Because he never said anything, we didn’t either. I always wondered if he ever accepted her death.
Then about 1980, I was visiting friends in Coos Bay, Or. An elderly woman wanted me to look at her picture album. It was filled with people in caskets, sitting in favorite armchairs, even one fishing. It was very detailed with birth and death dates, names and occupations, and very creepy. Many had their eyes open.
She was the last of her family and did not have anyone to talk to about them. I spent several hours talking to her and had nightmares for many years after. When she died, her friends refused to complete the album.
posted by TONNIE STEELE on 5-29-2008 at 10:43 pm
When I visited my grandparents as a child, there was a large 11×17 approx. photo of my uncle in his coffin. He had been crushed in a coal mine cave in. The b&w photo had been hand tinted, (his cheeks were slightly pink.) His head was a little misshapen by the accident. My grandma said it was common to make these photos back in the early years of the 20th century. Having that in the bedroom with me didn’t seem weird; it was actually reassuring to know he was there waiting to greet me each morning.
posted by Charles Francis on 6-3-2008 at 2:52 am
check out this wonderful and sad site containig photos found and contributed all over the world where most of the persons depicted remain nameless…
quite few memento mori there too…
it’s skarabej (dot) com
posted by nick on 6-3-2008 at 3:48 pm
As a wedding photographer I could not even fathom doing PM photography! I don’t see why this was so popular! Did they not take portraits of them before they passed away?
posted by Fort Myers Wedding Photography on 6-5-2008 at 7:05 pm
You know i always thought my great-grandma Lucy was wierd…all our funerals she took pictures of the bodies, and HUGE familly pictures with the casket, no one told her no as she is the oldest person alive in our familly at the time (she passed away at 89 years of age in 2000) She didnt display them except the one of her husband on her bedside table….Always thought her strange but this makes alot of sence, mabey it was somthing she learned from older people in her familly? It’s really facinating. Thx for posting these with the history.
posted by Nicholi on 6-12-2008 at 2:36 pm
“The Others” used mortuary photographs from the Stanley Burns “Sleeping Beauty” work cited in the article, the photographs in it are true memento mori. The work itself is highly prized but was only briefly released, used copies sell on Amazon for $350.
posted by Jenna on 6-18-2008 at 1:33 pm
I have been looking all over the internet for pictures like these! Ever since I saw them on The Others I have been facinated. But I guess I am a morbid sort of person.
posted by Jenna on 6-23-2008 at 3:39 pm
memonto-mori book:
photoeye.com
posted by Adam on 6-24-2008 at 5:02 pm
I remember when my mom passed, one of her friends wanted to take my pic with her in open casket… I was weired out but in no shape to protest so she snapped away. The roll of film (yes film) she developed all came out fine except for the few she took that day of me & my dead mother, I was happy as i didn’t want that day to be any more lasting then it already is.
posted by Thecoolone on 6-25-2008 at 3:33 pm
Wow, these are amazing. Like a few other people, I saw pictures like these on The Others. They astound me.
posted by Manda on 7-3-2008 at 5:03 pm
Thing like this should no be online.
posted by Norma on 7-7-2008 at 8:57 pm
Wow… these are really interesting. A little morbid, but interesting. I agree with one of the other comments above, that people in that era probably realized at the death of a loved one, that they didn’t have any photos of him/her. Hence, taking a “last” photo.
A very different time, indeed.
posted by darla on 7-9-2008 at 9:23 pm
Christy- where did you get that notion?? I have studied vintage photography and PMs for several years, and I must say you are in error. Many Ps are not children sleeping! Photography was expensive, so do you think Mom and Dad would allow their child to snooze when the photog is ready to snap? Very doubtful.
posted by Kerry on 7-23-2008 at 11:31 pm
I have pictures of my Father in his coffin, as I wanted to remember my last look at him. (Died, 10th Aug, 2002)
I worked as an undertaker for some years, so this is nothing unusual to me..
posted by Reaper on 8-8-2008 at 7:56 pm
When I was about 13, I was looking through my great-aunt’s photo album and got my first encounter with memento mori; pictures of her brother, who died when he was four years old. Her family was very poor, living in rural Arkansas, so when he died they took the pictures because they didn’t have any. I still remember the contrast of his black and white suit and the purple fabric he laid on. It was kind of creepy…
posted by Kate on 8-17-2008 at 2:13 am
This brings to mind the book Wisconsin Death Trip published in the 1960’s with photos fromt the 1800’s.
An interesting discussion of this type of photos.
posted by daniel on 8-19-2008 at 9:06 pm
this kind of photography is shown in The Others movie starring Nicole Kidman
posted by jhen on 8-20-2008 at 11:10 am
I have an aunt who takes pictures at wakes. To watch her do it, it’s just as if she’s taking pics at a family reuinion..just a “normal” thing to do. I was freaked out a bit when she brought her camera when my mother passed. But, we just bit our tongues.
posted by Donald on 8-30-2008 at 1:09 pm
BTW, “The Others” is playing on cable now and I, too, googled “book of the dead” to find this post.
posted by Donald on 8-30-2008 at 1:11 pm
wow
posted by Lovli on 9-30-2008 at 6:47 am
My grandmother has a book that in the family we call the “dead people book.”
Pictures of her parents, brother, husband, and several other family members.
posted by Sherry on 10-6-2008 at 10:31 am
For those fans of post-mort pics [and especially Victorian death photos], please be advised of the following: full rigor mortis sets in at 12 hours. Keep in mind these Victorian folks had no cell phones or even reliable home phones. So in order to call in a professional (or even struggling “artist-professional”) one might have to wait for several days for one’s relative to receive photographic attention.
Full Rigor Morits – - Twelve (12) hours!
That means if Jr. died at noon, by noon the next day he’s as stiff as a board.
How (if someone can debate, please do so) can all of these photos – and I have been to numerous other ‘Victorian Death Photo’ sites – how can all of these people be dead when their limbs looked relaxed, their facial muscles are relaxed, “sleep looking”, etc. I think a lot of them aren’t of the dead, but of the living.
PS – For those not afraid PLEASE look at the ‘creepy’ kids face. His eyes were obviously painted in after the fact (a common practice back in the day). He is sadly very dead and he doesn’t look like he’s very happy to be in that state. Very sad, robust little boy with an (I am assuming) untimely end to his busy little life.
posted by Babi on 10-28-2008 at 10:43 pm
some people in my family still do this and put the pictures in their family albums. it always gave me the shivers.
posted by jesskat on 11-6-2008 at 5:35 am
I just feel sorry for the kids who posed with their dead siblings!
posted by rhonda on 11-10-2008 at 10:28 pm
The reason so many of you are “creeped out” is modern America has become so “sanitized” from things like death and dying.
If you have ever lived in a 3rd world nation or in some very poor areas of this country where medical care is almost non-existent or prohibitively expensive, death is very much a part of everyday experience.
The American people are spoiled pulp rotten. Just one nationwide pandemic like the flu of 1918 would bring us all back to square one in our forgotten familiarity with death.
posted by paul on 11-15-2008 at 1:03 am
i noticed that i saw at least one of these in ‘the others’
the baby in the casket.
posted by tattoosofships on 1-22-2009 at 9:00 pm
Because my son was only one when his dad died, I took a couple pictures of the casket and all that for him to look at later if he wants.
posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-23-2009 at 1:27 pm
Death is just as natural as life. Really nice pics for the time.
posted by kennesaw on 2-5-2009 at 7:40 am
Taking pictures of loved ones in their caskets is natural to me. When my grandfather passed away when I was 10, my grandmother took pictures of him in his coffin. When she passed away in 2006, my husband was nice enough to take a couple of her for me. It’s not like we look at them often…they are kept in a small private album. It’s more of a posterity thing.
posted by Rach D on 2-17-2009 at 2:42 am
i tink these pic.s are sooooooooo fake! and there not freaky at all! this sux!
ly all! bye bye
from blahblah
posted by simone on 3-1-2009 at 11:18 pm
Read upon rigor mortis….the body WILL not stay stiff…it dies relax again somewhat.
posted by Cass on 4-15-2009 at 12:25 am
re: rigor mortis….the stiffness of rigor mortis only lasts for a few hours, and then the body completely relaxes again…it is a vital part of the “decomposition” process…and one that is a vital clue in the study of forensics. Most of these photos will have been posed long after rigor mortis hsa come and, at least, partially, gone. I know people, two, who have had stillborn children, and have had photo’s taken of their deceased children. It’s really all they have….I don’t find it creepy or weird, especially if done tastefully, just incredibly sad. Better to honour the love for the child…..in my humble opinion.
posted by sandie on 5-1-2009 at 12:01 am
A few people have mentioned how photography wasn’t very common “back then,” and I think there’s another related point to be made:
Death was.
Up until very recently (if you take the long view of human history), just living past your first birthday was sort of a major accomplishment.
People just DIED all the time, and I think it led to the living being much more stoic about the whole thing. In our modern era, the big “death event” of your childhood is when a grandparent passes away. In the 1800’s, by the time you were ten, you’d most likely buried all of your grandparents, a few siblings, at least one parent and about half of your friends. We’re more freaked out by death now because you’re expected to live at least 80 years, and hitting 100 isn’t even the death-defying stunt it once was.
I don’t know if I’d call these “creepy.” “Eerie” seems like a better word. The sibling photos are possibly the most haunting photos I’ve ever seen. But once you get past the visceral shock, you think, “Well, it’s just death. Same thing that’s waiting for me just down this road.”
posted by Clint on 5-7-2009 at 3:49 pm
Since I saw the movie The Others I was fascinated by these kind of pictures. Although some are disturbing, most of them are peaceful and beautifully done.
Here you can find a lot more of them:
paulfreckerdotcom
boatswaindotnl
posted by Michael on 6-2-2009 at 3:35 pm
in our place, taking pictures at funerals (including the coffin, among others) is just like taking pictures at any other gathering.
nice post anyway.
posted by daisychain on 6-11-2009 at 1:12 am
Re: people keeping severed heads back in the day – I don’t think this was common practice, but it’s always kinda amused me that in a Medieval verse romance called The Squyr of Lowe Degre the heroine keeps what she thinks is the embalmed body of her murdered lover at the head of her bed for seven years before he triumphantly returns and she finds out obviously it wasn’t him at all! That raises so many questions…
posted by Gwan on 7-8-2009 at 6:28 pm
inre: “Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!”
um, i beleive those are called ‘death masks’ and the practices of making such things go back into ancient times even…
but even creepier than these stories were the ones ‘floated out’ by the tabloids back in the 70s and 80s saying that JFK survived his assassination –
“he” was even shown being pushed around in a wheel chair by Jackie, who had since become Jackie-O — now those were creepy!!
posted by DixonSteele1on1 on 7-12-2009 at 2:23 pm
I probably shouldn’t have looked at this right before sleeping. Oh man, this makes me glad I’m in wedding photography.
posted by Chris Lin on 7-19-2009 at 5:39 am
Though in modern american culture these momento mori photographs and portraits are no longer traditional and are generally considered morbidly bizarre.. I can’t help but find an obscure fascination with them. It’s odd because I used to live in a very old house in upstate new york and over the years I had found several extremely aged photographs- mainly of children. I could pinpoint where they’d been taken through out the property and I can honestly say, as a child I was genuinely freaked out by the house let alone the distant stares of the children that’d been photographed. Though I sensed an absence in their faces and composure it had never occurred to me that it had once been common to photograph the dead as if they were alive. Of course many years later I’d gained knowledge of this old tradition.. and was completely shocked when I realized that the children here more than likely photographed dead.. in my living room nonetheless.. wow. Creeped out and intrigued.
posted by Tracy Bugenhagen on 7-22-2009 at 2:39 am
Hey, did you know this type of photography was also in the movie The Others with Nicole Kidman?
Just kidding. Seems like people don’t really read other people’s comments, but are in a rush to post their own, thinking they know something no one else knows. Consequently, I just read 900 other people mention The Others with Nicole Kidman.
posted by Greg on 7-28-2009 at 12:13 pm
The only one that seems outright creepy to me is the very first one; having the eyes open does almost seem like the dead child is staring at you from beyond the grave. The last one, of the old man, is odd; but the others break my heart. Especially the ones of the children. As a photographer, and friends with many photographers, I’ve seen some very touching photos of deceased relatives and I don’t think they’re creepy if done with love and respect. There’s even a charity that does special photography for families who lose their babies and I promise you, it’s not creepy but it will make you cry. http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/
posted by FlyButtafly on 8-2-2009 at 1:28 am
There are pictures of dead soldiers from the Civil War on a National Parks website. They are kind of creepy, but at the same time, very moving…
posted by Penny on 8-10-2009 at 6:10 pm
I believe I read something about the first picture a while ago. The boy was being displayed in the window because the whole house was being quarantined.
My family has no memento mori photos- but my grandmother has a decent sized wreath of human hair hanging in an old shadowbox frame in her house. Every time a family member died, a flower would be made out of their hair. Rather ghoulish, in my opinion.
posted by Kevin on 8-12-2009 at 3:10 am
I was a CNA for 6 years and had to deal with more dead bodies than I care to remeber. I actually thought about going into mortuary science for awhile. Death itself doesn’t bother me but these pictures still creep me out
posted by Audball on 8-13-2009 at 10:49 am
Although this do make me uncomfortable, I do think when people close to me I would want a picture of them.
Also, when babies are born and die most parents have “memory boxes” which include pictures of the babies, many times after they have passed. It’s an important part of getting through the tough time.
I don’t get why this is so horrible to some people. What is the difference of taking a picture of a sick person in the hospital and a dead person. Either way, great article!
posted by Heather on 8-21-2009 at 11:33 am
I think pictures like this are amazing. Maybe I am a bit more morbid than I should be, or been desensitized by life after dealing with so many deaths with in my family. Still, it gives you a great insight on how death was dealt with back in the times of our great-grandparents, and Grandparents.
On a side note, there is a funeral parlor in Kentucky where a few of my families funerals were held that record a video of the service if you wish to pay for it.
posted by Kacy on 8-28-2009 at 6:04 pm
I have one relative who faithfully comes to the funeral with her Funsaver and snaps a photo of the deceased. When her brother, my grandpa, died we let her go in by herself and have the casket opened for her to take the photo. I remember being freaked out by it then, and I never want to see those photos. I like to remember my loved ones alive, not dead.
However, I do understand the need for these photos back then, and I also think organizations like “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” do an amazing service for grieving families.
posted by KerriD on 8-30-2009 at 8:04 pm
Very interesting read and picks. ever since I saw the others I have been fascinated by this strange custom.
posted by Jeff on 9-1-2009 at 9:44 pm
I don’t have an issue with death, going to funerals or graveyards don’t creep me out. But I can’t why anyone would want to take post-mortem pictures in this day and age. We have regular access to cameras, it’s not terribly expensive. I want to remember my loved ones alive, not dead. I don’t want to remember someone’ funeral. Even with stillborn babies, isn’t it better to remember the wonder of pregnancy not the grief? It just seems morbid to me.
posted by Aleia on 9-2-2009 at 12:27 am
And does anyone else feel the compulsion to refer to the last guy as Rasputin, or is that just me?
posted by Aleia on 9-2-2009 at 12:31 am
There is nothing creepy about it at all! When my father died (just two years ago) I was alone with him when he died and my gentle care of him didn’t stop. I continued to talk to him and hold his hand long after I knew he had passed away.
Later at the funeral home I took a last photo of him as he lay there. It was lovely to see him at ‘peace’ after he had died a harrowing and painful death. The photo helps me remember how peaceful he looked instead of remembering how pained he had looked before.
These are beautiful photos and show a touching blend of both grief and love. Thank you for sharing.
posted by Bella on 9-7-2009 at 11:27 pm
In Germany, the Nazis would routinely photograph captured Resistance Fightervictims at all stages of torture and eventual execution.
The Gestapo would then use the most horrible pictures to show to suspected Resistance Fighters. Their reaction nearly always gave them away and they in turn became the next set of tortured photos.
This technique was so successfull that Hitler ordered special EinsatzCommando to be set up just for the purpose of capturing foreign politicians – their torture photos were then to be sent to all members of foreign governments as a warning if they didnt give in.
The project was stopped when Rudolf Hess flew to England, told the British, and security was increased by ten fold.
posted by anders raalway on 9-20-2009 at 10:26 am
People deal with death in their own ways. Different cultures and regions do different things. My family always take pictures of the dead at their funerals—and we are not black OR low-class. (Low class? Really?) It’s just another life passage that we record, just like a birth, a wedding, or a graduation. It was sort of trendy during the Victorian era to pose the dead; it’s not trendy any more. But I and my family will continue to take pictures at funerals, and they will go in the album with the other pictures—it’s life, and it’s death, and it is not creepy or wrong. It’s just what we do. It’s not like we are taking pics of crime scenes and violence, just memorializing a loved one.
posted by Amy on 10-8-2009 at 10:10 pm
Saw a program featuring this on TV the other week – the ways some of the dead were posed for pictures in victorian times was quite amazing – interestingly they all had a very peaceful look on their faces
posted by Tim Driver on 11-4-2009 at 6:35 am
2 things – The first is my brother-in-law told me his co-worker had a miscarraige and she and her boyfriend posed with the dead, purple, not-human-looking-fetus. He said they were smiling in the photo. Utterly creepy.
Also all the people on here talking about how death is so inevitable, check out TED.com and find the talk Aubrey de Grey gives about the genetic work being done that could lengthen human lives by 100 to 1000 years in the next few decades. Stay healthy!
posted by Rob on 11-4-2009 at 6:46 pm
I’m only 58, but I remember in my rural Alabama childhood and youth seeing a corpse laid out for visitation in the parlor at home and folks taking photos of the dead in their coffins. Those were still considered normal practices for the reasons discussed above. Going back as a young adult, I found it cathartic at my grandfather’s burial when we pallbearers, after struggling to haul the coffin through the rough country cemetery, were called upon to fill in the grave. We all picked up shovels and worked up a sweat on a cool, crisp, sunny December day as we filled filled my grandfather’s grave with dirt.
posted by Bubba on 11-6-2009 at 8:56 pm
It took me a while to read this article… About 3 months from when I originally seen it.
Because the first time I opened it up, all I seen were those eyes glaring at me… I couldn’t sleep for a week.
Now Im glad I read the whole article. I feel better. Strangely.
BTW the men dressed in black holding the casket open. Creepy.
posted by Chrystani on 11-17-2009 at 12:35 pm