Victorian death photos

[NYCKY]

The Sixth Sense is very like The Others, I believe, with the amazing, haunting twist at the end.....

Indeed, they are both great movies I never picked up on the twists until the end of both movies and even found myself thinking back on how they did it. The others definitely better than the sixth sense but both very good.

[RainyDay]

One of the odder aspects of how Victorians coped with death was their tendency to take photos of the dead - sometimes with the corpse placed in a group shot of the other children or parents or relatives.

I understand that most of these Victorian deaths were caused by cyclists cycling on the pavement.

[sauntersplash]

A lot less shocking than the inclination that some people have today to record extreme suffering or death of people on their mobile phones etc.

It's the same inclination though, surely.

[TommyO'Brien]

Moving Montage Tommy.

I couldn't help but notice the lack of happy smiley faces in the family photos. Perhaps they didn't always smile in family photos in Victorian times but you could sense that the children/siblings knew that these particular photographic events were not happy occasions.

Victorians didnt 'do' smiling photos.

[junius]

It's the same inclination though, surely.

I don't think it remotely resembles the sadism of people who record extreme suffering or the death of people on their mobile phones. To me, this montage of photos shows the great love that was felt for the dead siblings or relatives. I found this excruciatingly sad and moving, one of the most heartbreaking things I've seen in a long time. Can feel tears welling just to watch it. What must it have been like for the people themselves? There was a great deal of effort put into making the deceased person look their very best and as photographs were a relatively new and expensive invention, these photos would have been treasured and wept over for a long time. So sad, as the loss of a loved one remains to this day!

[Good Irish Mammy]

Its called '100 years' by Ivan Rosenburg.

Tommy, thanks for that amazing post. It's just so moving. All those beautiful children.

[shutuplaura]

I can't watch the video because I'm at work but I did come across the below a while ago which has many post mortum victorian photos and offers a brief explanation of the phenomenon.

"These photographs served less as a reminder of mortality than as a keepsake to remember the deceased. This was especially common with infants and young children; Victorian era childhood mortality rates were extremely high, and a post-mortem photograph might be the only image of the child the family ever had. The later invention of the carte de visite, which allowed multiple prints to be made from a single negative, meant that copies of the image could be mailed to relatives."

Memento Mori: Victorian Death Photos

Pretty creepy though!

[Des Quirell]

The linked video is the very definition of pathos.

Beautiful if somewhat upsetting images and a wonderfully sympathetic piece of music.

[budwards dad]

a love the music too
b who is the dead one at 1.39

[Mr. Bumble]

One of the odder aspects of how Victorians coped with death was their tendency to take photos of the dead - sometimes with the corpse placed in a group shot of the other children or parents or relatives.

Below is some examples.

Very powerful and haunting.