Post-Mortem Photography

Post-Mortem photography, the act of taking photographs of the recently deceased, was a common custom during the beginning of the 19^th century. It eventually replaced the older and much more costly use of posthumous paintings. With the advent and popularization of the photograph came the ability for the middle class to memorialize their loved ones. A family that could not afford a lavish funeral or beautiful headstone could finally, at the very least, immortalize their memories via a photograph.

At a time when photographs were still new, this practice was not perceived as morbid. Posthumous photos were a testament to the lives of those gone before. In Victorian society birth and death rates were almost equal. Young children in particular faced a broad number of risks from childhood diseases to contaminated bottles and patent medicines. Because of this most post-mortem photographs are of small children. Most families did not take regular pictures of their children because of the expense involved; a post-mortem photograph was often the only picture of a child the family had. Children were sometimes posed sitting up, with their eyes open and favorite toy in hand, or in the arms of their mother.

Early post-mortem photographs most commonly were taken with the deceased outside the coffin. The deceased might be sitting upright in a chair or lying in the bed as if sleeping. Later photographs would show changes in funeral culture including the addition of lined coffins and funeral flowers. In some late century post-mortem photographs it is almost impossible to see the deceased for the number of flowers and crowds of people surrounding them.