- January 17 2013 | 200 Notes - Read More →
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. 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. 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]
"Until the handkerchief of history covers us with its Times New Roman black and white post script..."
This blog is a collection of vernacular photography and ephemera focused mainly within the curious and often misunderstood realm of 19th century America. I have a soft spot for all things silly, antiquated, macabre, and grotesque. The content is from a variety of collections; public, academic, and private. In addition, there's an occasional emphasis on Ulysses S Grant and the Civil War, as well.
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