Saturday 13 June 2009

Post Mortem Photograph

Yesterday, while looking for some more historical items to share with you, I came across a large shoe box. Imagine my amazement when I took off the lid and found it contained a couple of hundred very ornate In Memoriam cards dating from the 1850s to the 1950s. I will share a photograph with you of the box and its contents so you can appreciate the scale of the find, but that can wait for a later date. What was interesting was a large photograph that lay at the bottom of the box. It stirred a memory of a stall holder at a car boot sale - years ago - asking me if I was the person who collected funeral postcards? I said, yes and he offered me the photograph published here.

Some of you may have previously come across the Victorian custom of having photographs taken of their recently departed family members. Often, a family realised that they had no photographic record of the person who had passed on and sought out a professional photographer who specialised in the art of post mortem portrait photography. To have these photographs taken was quite expensive as it often involved the adult loved one, for example, being fixed to a supporting frame in the standing position or seated, surrounded by family members. The results were sometimes awful with open eyes being inked in by the photographer - on occasion, very amateurishly.

One photographer who did a consistently good job was the Australian portrait photographer, John Charles Garrood who had a studio in Sydney Road, Brunswick, Victoria. He took the photograph of this recently dead young girl, surrounded by flowers and lying in bed. The eye is remarkably clear, but it might be that Garrood cut out and inserted an open eye from someone else's portrait and re-took the shot? It is certainly a more tasteful portrait than some I have seen.

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13 comments:

  1. Wow I must say I am so amazed that you found all those photos especially this one, this are truly a rare find. I don't have an mourning photos but I do have a couple mourning cards with a young child's name age five from the late 1800s. Thank you for sharing this photo.

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  2. I have always found these postmortem photos fascinating. It seems a bit ghoulish at first, but things were different back then. I've never personally seen one, only on tv and now here.

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  3. Laurie, your apparently bottomless collection never ceases to amaze. This piece is a treasure; sobering, touching, fascinating in the glimpse of life from another age than ours...

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  4. Wow, what a wonderful photo - you have such a treasure there... We have a book about such photos from Mexico, where this was also quite a custom. It's quite fascinating to me!

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  5. Hmmmmm... brings back memories of the film 'The Others'. Creepy custom (lol)!

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  6. A great find indeed. I have seen photos such as this, it seemed a custom in the old west to take photos of dead gun slinging outlaws and some of the saloons in the historic towns display them on their walls.

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  7. Boy...you learn something new every day! That photo of the dog at his mistresses grave is very touching. :o( Paulette

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  8. Ben c'est vachement gai pour un dimanche matin...! ! ! ! ! !
    Ceci dit, j'aime bien les photos anciennes mais celles-ci ! Bon, c'est sûr qu'un jour ou l'autre !...
    Bon Dimanche laurie tout de même !... et post natale !
    Ciao, Namasté, 'Salam !...8:)

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  9. It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly fashions change, to think of having a mourning portrait taken now makes most people baulk, but back then it was so important. his one is beautiful... so peaceful.

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  10. To me, the little girl looks quite alive and reposing on a day bed. I think the eyes could have remained shut, and it would have the same effect. The cheeks are blooming and full, while the forehead looks cool to the touch with the hair smoothed back. My grandmother had a stuffed dog; this could almost see the taxidermist.

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  11. Hi Laurie, me again, just wanted to suggest a link to a blog, don't know if you've been there before, to Catherine's blog, but she just did a nice piece today on a cemetery in Mexico :

    http://smallfishinthebigtaco.blogspot.com/

    See you, thanks again for the link to Tom B.

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  12. Oh, my goodness! I think you are right about the photographer's technique. They usually put pennies on the person's eyelids after death. Then later the eyes would stay closed. Or so my grandfather told me!

    Amazing photo.

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