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Victorian Era Post Mortum Photos

Started by pyewacket, October 30, 2014, 11:06:47 AM

pyewacket

I remember coming across one or two of these while looking through old, old, family albums. They also made reference to these in the movie, The Others. One of my kids collects antiques and has a collection.

http://www.viralnova.com/post-mortem-victorian-photographs/

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: pyewacket on October 30, 2014, 11:06:47 AM
I remember coming across one or two of these while looking through old, old, family albums. They also made reference to these in the movie, The Others. One of my kids collects antiques and has a collection.

http://www.viralnova.com/post-mortem-victorian-photographs/

deeeeeepressing.

I've seen some of those, and they're pretty damn creepy, especially the ones where the corpse looks more alive than the surviving family members.


paladin1991

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on October 30, 2014, 11:44:27 AM
I've seen some of those, and they're pretty damn creepy, especially the ones where the corpse looks more alive than the surviving family members.
Thinking the same thing, brutha!

VtaGeezer

People then accepted the dead as a normal and routine part if their lives. It was much more common for people to die of illness in their prime, and death of children was very common.

Kelt

Yeah, the Victorians were all sorts of fucked in the head.

Just stand there, Constance, next to the corpse of your brother. Now, say "Miserable"!


Quote from: area51drone on October 30, 2014, 11:51:25 AM
I'm not sure I believe these...

No, they are real.  They were popular in the early day of photography.  For most of these people, the post-mortem photo might be the only photo ever taken of that person, especially with babies and young children (notice that they make up most of these pictures).  Also, most people died in their homes, and mortality rates (especially for infants and children) were quite high compared to today.  Death was a common part of life and didn't have the creepy aspect it has today.

Uncle Duke

I think this practice went beyond the Victorian era, both my parents' families have photographs of deceased relatives taken into the late 1930s.  Not as elaborate as most of those on the site Pyewacket posted, but photos taken of the deceased that make them seem asleep with people standing around the body.  Sadly, the only photo my mom had of her father was taken at his wake in 1938.  He died in a farming accident, his wake held in the family farm house.

pyewacket

Quote from: MV on October 30, 2014, 11:37:27 AM
deeeeeepressing.

That depends on your POV, MV. Yeah, there are happier subjects from antiquity, but this is part of history. Photography is her hobby and she also collects vintage cameras, glass daguerreotype when she can find them, and other photo subjects. It shows the change in cultural sensibilities over the years. The Victorians also made keepsakes from hair of their deceased. Mourning Hair Jewelry and Artwork were also popular. with the Victorians. Sorry for the redundancy  :(

http://www.langantiques.com/university/index.php/Hair_jewelry



yumyumtree

Quote from: DigitalPigSnuggler on October 30, 2014, 12:34:32 PM
No, they are real.  They were popular in the early day of photography.  For most of these people, the post-mortem photo might be the only photo ever taken of that person, especially with babies and young children (notice that they make up most of these pictures).  Also, most people died in their homes, and mortality rates (especially for infants and children) were quite high compared to today.  Death was a common part of life and didn't have the creepy aspect it has today.
I pretty much agree.  Actaully, I also think it would serve modern American not to be quite so prissy about death.  Then we wouldn't have to listen to commercials like Diedinhouse.

My first experience with sort of thing was in the 70s when I lived in Missoula. My neighbor was born around 1900, of German extraction and originally from the Dakotas(near where Lawrence Welk was from, I think) Anyway, she was showing me a family album and there were some pictures of people in their coffins! And these were pretty recent, probably from the sixties or seventies. I did a double take, trying to be polite, but I was just a teenager and our family didn't do anything like this. 

Also there's a lot of difference between seeing or looking at a picture of a dead person who has had the services of a mortician and a dead person in some other condition.  I'm sure anybody in the medical profession, etc. could tell you that. I've seen both, but more of the former.

Juan

The practice continues today, particularly for more-or-less full term miscarriages and for babies who die within a few days of birth.

albrecht

I know there are costs, and even environmental reasons I guess, but it seems that every year I see less and less funerals with viewings and less and less burials and more cremations or "remembrance ceremonies-" sometimes several months after the death. I think it is related to economics (burning them up is cheaper,) people move further and further away from each other (hard to travel to funeral, lose contact with family maybe) and people are living longer (so often when some old lady dies, say in a nursing home, they have no more family, or family that doesn't really care as about them and so says cremate and we'll do some ceremony later or some kind words at a family gathering sometime.- versus flying out, planning a funeral, etc.) In older times many still lived near same town, farm, city, etc and, sadly people died younger, funerals and viewings etc more common. Could also be less influence of religion or the changes to it (used to be some religions said "no burning, gotta bury, and quickly" but I think only observant Jews and Islam still hold to that.)

eddie dean

"Dead baby pictures? haw haw haw!"
Signed,
G.Noory Soundboard

pyewacket

Quote from: albrecht on October 30, 2014, 02:15:54 PM
I know there are costs, and even environmental reasons I guess, but it seems that every year I see less and less funerals with viewings and less and less burials and more cremations or "remembrance ceremonies-" sometimes several months after the death. I think it is related to economics (burning them up is cheaper,) people move further and further away from each other (hard to travel to funeral, lose contact with family maybe) and people are living longer (so often when some old lady dies, say in a nursing home, they have no more family, or family that doesn't really care as about them and so says cremate and we'll do some ceremony later or some kind words at a family gathering sometime.- versus flying out, planning a funeral, etc.) In older times many still lived near same town, farm, city, etc and, sadly people died younger, funerals and viewings etc more common. Could also be less influence of religion or the changes to it (used to be some religions said "no burning, gotta bury, and quickly" but I think only observant Jews and Islam still hold to that.)

Good observations, Albrecht. More people are organ donors or leaving their bodies for medical studies. There is also a "green" movement for burials in natural environments.

maureen

And to think that the photos have survived longer than the subjects! It seems a fine way to honour the dead.

Pyewacket, check out the photography of Casasola and of Bravo, two of Mexico's finest artists.

Quote from: pyewacket on October 30, 2014, 02:27:41 PM
Good observations, Albrecht. More people are organ donors or leaving their bodies for medical studies. There is also a "green" movement for burials in natural environments.

I wish people would quit doing open casket memorials, because embalmed corpses are grotesque and never look anything like the deceased.  I prefer to remember my family members and friends as they were.

My dad was cremated and my mom is donating her body to a med school. I made arrangements to be cremated and have a portion of my ashes shot into space.  I figure I'll never get there in my lifetime, so that will be my only chance.

pyewacket

Quote from: maureen on October 30, 2014, 03:01:03 PM
And to think that the photos have survived longer than the subjects! It seems a fine way to honour the dead.

Pyewacket, check out the photography of Casasola and of Bravo, two of Mexico's finest artists.

Thank you, Maureen- I will. I learn so much from many of you - this is a great place to visit everyday.  ;D

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: pyewacket on October 30, 2014, 01:15:57 PM
That depends on your POV, MV. Yeah, there are happier subjects from antiquity, but this is part of history. Photography is her hobby and she also collects vintage cameras, glass daguerreotype when she can find them, and other photo subjects. It shows the change in cultural sensibilities over the years. The Victorians also made keepsakes from hair of their deceased. Mourning Hair Jewelry and Artwork were also popular. with the Victorians. Sorry for the redundancy  :(

http://www.langantiques.com/university/index.php/Hair_jewelry

i guess i'm viewing it specifically from the perspective of a parent.  what an unthinkable thing to endure. 

albrecht

Quote from: maureen on October 30, 2014, 03:01:03 PM
And to think that the photos have survived longer than the subjects! It seems a fine way to honour the dead.

Pyewacket, check out the photography of Casasola and of Bravo, two of Mexico's finest artists.
It always makes me sorta of sad when one runs into things like old photographs, family Bibles, etc at thift shops, garage sales, or retro/chic places. Especially when you see full albums and books that seeming were well maintained and kept and then, somehow, now find themselves being almost thrown away or sold to some hipster for kitsch or decoration.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on October 30, 2014, 03:06:08 PM
I prefer to remember my family members and friends as they were.

same here.  it's why i don't go to funerals with open caskets.  my grandmother and i were extremely close, and for whatever reason, i regrettably deviated from that policy when she died.  i don't know why i thought it would be a good choice, because it certainly wasn't.  she looked awful (as do most people).

eyenoeyeno


VtaGeezer

Quote from: albrecht on October 30, 2014, 03:29:40 PM
It always makes me sorta of sad when one runs into things like old photographs, family Bibles, etc at thift shops, garage sales, or retro/chic places. Especially when you see full albums and books that seeming were well maintained and kept and then, somehow, now find themselves being almost thrown away or sold to some hipster for kitsch or decoration.
Not just bibles and photos.  I could have retired years earlier if I had my Dad's 19th Century and older "junk" that he collected from 50's flea markets and salvage shops.  Mom made him take it all to the dump when they moved to a smaller house on a lake.

pyewacket

Quote from: MV on October 30, 2014, 03:28:00 PM
i guess i'm viewing it specifically from the perspective of a parent.  what an unthinkable thing to endure.


I'm a parent, too and losing a child has got to be a parent's worst nightmare. I also understand your sentiments about open casket wakes and funerals. The body is just a husk without the spirit of our loved ones. I've lost several close family members in the last few years. They seem to "visit" in dreams and I can feel their energy, maybe that's what helps a person cope with the physical loss. They live in our memories and in our hearts and I do believe they survive physical death. Maybe people just wanted to keep a bit of them in the ways that were available in those times.

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