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To: nickcarraway

I understand that this was not uncommon here in the States around the time of the Civil War.

The family genealogists are still debating whether that photo of great great granddad dressed in his Sunday best and sitting next to his wife was taken after he died.


4 posted on 05/31/2014 2:41:20 PM PDT by Veto! (OpInions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: Veto!

Very common in the 1800’s to take postmortem photos. Postmortem photos are very collectible now and can run into the hundreds of dollars.


8 posted on 05/31/2014 2:50:37 PM PDT by NH Red
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To: Veto!
The family genealogists are still debating whether that photo of great great granddad dressed in his Sunday best and sitting next to his wife was taken after he died.

It was hard to hold still for those long exposures.

33 posted on 05/31/2014 6:53:29 PM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: Veto!

Go to youtube and do a search for “memento mori.” Lots of Victorian-era pictures of the deceased. In some cases, they used a special framework to photograph the corpses while they were standing, and painted open “eyes” on the closed lids of the bodies.

There are some pictures of live children posing with a deceased sibling. Photography was expensive back then, so in some cases this was the last chance for the family to have a picture of their loved one.

Do not look at these pictures if you are easily creeped out. Actually, don’t look at them if you have any capacity for getting creeped out at all.


36 posted on 06/01/2014 5:03:21 AM PDT by mrs. a (It's a short life but a merry one...)
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