Vintage Death Photos 1860-1910

[DiamondSmiles]

Some of these are very creepy. I recall seeing a couple of these before, but, I'm pretty sure most are new to DR. The eye painting is creepy, too, in my humble opinion.

Dead photos – Victorian post-mortem photographs
Death, in Victorian England, was a grand and complicated business. There were many social rules in the classes who could afford it about mourning clothes, degrees of morning, and the length of time for which different mourning colours were to be worn.

A widow, for example, wore “deep mourning” (non-reflective black), for a year, including a full veil if she went outside. She then wore any colour black for another 9 months, then light mourning, (including grey and purple), for another 3 to 6 months.

There was also a common custom, which seems distinctly odd today, of having photographs taken of the dead – sometimes on their own, sometimes in posed family groups, but all post-mortem photos.

In some cases, especially with children, there might well have been no other photographs for the family to keep. Photographs were expensive, and complicated to take and arrange, and therefore most people didn’t have them done frequently. The death of a baby or child therefore often meant that the family had no photograph of the person at all, or no photograph taken with children born later than the one who had died.

But in other cases, it was part of a morbid fascination with death – the kind of behaviour that saw Queen Victoria go into black widow’s clothes for 4 decades, from the time of her husband Prince Albert’s death in 1860 until she died herself in 1901. Thus the photographs showing a young mother’s children draped over her grave or tombstone, for example.

Some of these dead photos featured the person lying down, as if asleep. In others, the person was propped up, and even had his eyes painted in after the photo was taken. In these cases, the only way you can be sure which person is definitely dead is by noting that the face is very clear – the long exposures needed meant that living people tended to blur, slightly.

There were similar photographs taken in other countries, of course- but the examples below, (all out of copyright owing to their age), are English ones.

[TexasTea2008]

Nice collection.

[jasonbtx]

Freaking Good Stuff!

[DiamondSmiles]

I love this guy's hairdo ;)

[Bronte1068]

Very interesting collection of pics! Glad we don't do that in modern times.

[DiamondSmiles]

If it could be done tastefully, I can't say I'd rule it out, but, some of those babies look so sickly, (like the little girl with her legs dangling at the end of the table or whatever she is on.

I'd rather remember them when they were healthy, assuming they were, if only for a few months, then see them posed like dolls, but, some are beautiful.

The first one and the little boy on the pony are way too creepy for me.

[Wheelwash]

The one with the kid on the rocking horse...da fuckkkkkkk

[bjansmith]

I always feel bad for the siblings that have to pose in front of their dead sister/brother. That's going to fuck them up later.

[DarkBolo]

Those babies are so creepy.

[Sharon]

Very eerie images. The kid at the window is awful