Historical Indulgences

ca. 1850’s, [post mortem daguerreotype portrait of a child on a patchwork quilt], Carleton

via Be-Hold Fine Photographs

ca. 1850’s, [daguerreotype portrait of a child, possibly sick, surrounded by toys]

via the Daguerreian Society, Grant Dinsmore Collection

ca. 1880-90’s, [tintype portrait of three friends, perhaps playing dead]

via Ebay

ca. 1855, [post mortem daguerreotype portrait of a child]

via the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Cased Photographs Collection

ca. 1860’s, [upright post mortem tintype portrait of a woman]

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1860’s, [post-mortem ambrotype portrait of a gentleman in a chair]

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1860-70’s, [post mortem portrait of a young girl laid out on a couch]

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1850’s, [post mortem daguerreotype portrait of a child with her doll]

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1858, [post mortem ambrotype portrait of a young boy surrounded by flowers]

via Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs, Skylight Gallery

ca. 1860’s, [post mortem ambrotype portait of a Union officer in his coffin]

via Cowan’s Auction

It was not until the Civil War when embalming became commonplace in America. With soldiers fighting and dying sometimes hundreds of miles from home, the sanitary and aesthetic issues arising from transporting a body over several days, sometimes weeks on trains, was quickly resolved through a mortician’s hand and embalming procedures.

ca. 1860’s, [post-mortem tintype portrait of a child in his coffin]

via Ballyhooligan, Bat Country Books on Flickr

ca. 1840-50’s, [post mortem daguerreotype portrait of a child, cradled in arms of a woman], W.A. Pratt

A dramatically lit horizontal post-mortem image of a tiny baby placed upon the aproned lap of an [black] woman, only her hands visible to signify her race. A superb, and cerebral image, that speaks volumes of the complex interelationships between slaves and masters in the Ante-bellum south.

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1903, [silver print portrait of six medical students performing a dissection], Chas. F. Bretzman

via Cowan’s Auctions

ca. 1860-80, [ambrotype portrait of a mother cradling her deceased child]

via Be-Hold Fine Photographs

ca. 1850, [daguerreotype portrait of a child at the crib of a baby, possibly deceased]

via the International Center of Photography