Postmortem Photography of the Victorian Era | History
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In the 1850s, families began commissioning portraits of their deceased loved ones in a trend that came to be known as “memento mori” photography.
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“Secure the shadow ere the substance fades.” was the advertising slogan of the photographers who did these photos.
I have a post-mortem photo of an infant uncle who died at 2 weeks old of pneumonia. I finally found his death certificate online, in my genealogical research. Until then the photo was the only physical evidence that he had existed. I don’t see these photos as morbid, just sad, especially the children. The sorrowing families just wanted an image to remember them by. Nowadays we take so many pictures. Back then, when photography was such an expensive and laborious process, these photos might have been the only photos ever taken, and often included living family around the deceased, and would be the only physical remembrance of a lost loved one, and of the family that loved him or her..
I think that they are making a comeback.
No thnx.. Interesting but scarry… Too sensitive 2me
Still creepy. They don’t look alive. I dont know why family, especially parents, would want to remember them that way. But times were different then.
My grandmother died at the age of 90. I was a teenager then, and our Boy Scouts troop were scheduled to go on a winter campout on the weekend of her funeral. My parents let me go out on the campout, and they took a photo of my grandmother, post-mortem, in her casket. They showed me the photo once I came back home. I thanked them for taking the photo.
Excuse me, I don’t speak English. I see photos and I have question. Where gone this people? I see a wall and me here and people deathly else side.
POSTMORTEM PHOTOGRAPHY !!!!
People still do it, my sister did because her oldest wouldn’t go to the wake but knew she would wish had, the album was made out of her wedding gown its just beautifully, I could never look at the pictures
The ones of these are sad to me are the ones of little children because I’m sure they wouldn’t have died if they would have had medical care to the degree that we have now
RIP dear souls respect for all
I can fully understand doing this for children
I would do it if at possible
But photography was a luxury and bc of predjudice did not cross culture
In my eastern Eastern European culture, we also take photos of the decedent. Death is a part of life. We will all sucumb to it one day.
You don’t need photos of the deceased, just remember them when they were alive.
My brother lives in Spain and he said many people take selfies with corpses just before cremation.
They used to prop them up with crazy contraptions, wooden posts with belts and wires
I bet there a lot of people back then still thought this was creepy…
It’s no different today. Some people take the last photo of their beloved deceased. I don’t but many do.
The profound sense of loss,love and grief is plain too see,especially where the death of a child is concerned. Immortalised in a photograph,but dead all the same.
Most are fakes.
Oh for Christ sakes ! What and almighty funk is wrong with people man !!! LOL..LOL !!
I wouldn’t say they were “happy” memories of the departed.
Maybe “loving” or “respectful” would be better.
Imagine them back then taking a Post-Mortem, or simply put, a photo with their deceased loved ones or deceased children, forcing themselves to hold back the tears and emotions. That must’ve been rough.
Edit: Now imagine that going on in this era or century, with family photos with the deceased family members and family members still alive, holding back the emotions for the final photo with the family member, or family members they lost.
Why not remember people with photos of them living? I can’t believe some people here posting saying they wouldn’t mind having a pic of a deceased one. WHY??? I would never want myself being remembered like that.
It’s all a matter of how society sees things. It doesn’t bother me see these images. But I’m sure there are people who squirm.
In most cases this would be the only photo they had of them
Fascinating!
This is just ***** sad.
Dub in narration for more likes
😢Rip
😢 Già fanno un’infinità tristezza, gli adulti, ma i bimbi, straziano il cuore. 😢💔🙏
So sad. 😢. Creepy but interesting!!
Its very sad seing children dead so much pain. One thousand years ago we were nothing. One thousand years from now we will be long gone nothing. Never existed.
Bizar for me
😯😯😯😯🌺🌺🌺🌺
Infants and children. Very sad indeed.
They don’t seem ghoulish. Just the sad reminder of when you lose someone dear to you ..mother with child in her arms. Heartbreaking just to behold. A hurt that will never heal
It’s like they could just get up and start talking to you it’s creepy as well.
The images of the children with their toys did me in. I couldn’t keep watching because I was crying.
We still do this. I mean dont we all have portaits of our deceased family on our book cases or on walls. I know i do. The only difference is they were alive but its the same idea❤
Photos were so expensive back then that the only pic they probably had
was the death photo
If memory serves me correctly, my grandparents had a postmortem photo of their first born son, William, lying in his cradle as if he were asleep. (Their second son grew up to marry my mother and be my father.)
Most of these are works of art.
На третьей части фотографий,нет ни одного мертвеца.😅
fim ja era este lugar não vai dar pra fazer nada
Can the History Channel have picked the worst and more annoying music?
Is it weird that I want a postmortem photo done of me after I die?
My maternal grandmother died in 2012 April and when we tried to take her final picture my relatives stopped saying it’s forbidden.😮
Today we have 100s of pictures to remember people when they were living. Those picture are probably the only ones they have to remember.
Terrible and macaber 👎
My fathers family kept to a tradition of photographing the deceased it their coffin at the wake. The first time I saw this as teenager I was surprised but not bothered. My mother, of a different ethnicity, was incensed, & left the room in a huff, leaving me bewildered.