The Victorian Book of the Dead

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Victorian death photography was also used as a way to document the deceased person’s appearance for legal or scientific reasons. For example, a photograph could be used as evidence in a trial if a person died under suspicious circumstances. Similarly, if a person dies of a rare disease, a photograph could be used to document the symptoms and help with medical research. Controversy Orlando, Mirko. (2010). Ripartire dagli addii: uno studio sulla fotografia post-mortem. Milano: MjM editore. A physician, hastily summoned, said there was no hope for the boy and death came a few hours later. The “subject” has now done service for a period of three years and the proprietor confidently expects that it will last as long as he remains in business. Burns, Stanley B. and Elizabeth A. (2002). Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement in Memorial Photography American and European Traditions. Burns Archive Press.

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The divorce was obtained with ease, as Thorne made no answer to the complaint and the case was perfectly clear in our favor. A remarkable feature of this churchyard “flitting” is that the tombstones and headstones were sold When I was living in Calcutta in an old house near the heart of the city, I was leading juvenile man in a theatrical company. In another, the hooded figure of the Reaper was seen in a building adjoining a haunted theatre in Chillicothe, Ohio. The building was used as a haunted house attraction at Halloween, but the Reaper was not a prop nor did it seem to be a human in a costume. The witness said that she saw this “grim reaper thing in a big hood” gliding along the hall by the second-floor railing. It drew up alongside her and looked at her.

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During the night the sister had been taken mortally ill. In her despair she had caught her aged mother in her arms and pinioned her tight against her breast. At the same time the mother’s head had been pulled down under the covers and partly bent downward, causing partial suffocation. The horror of the situation had caused her to faint, and while thus unconscious the daughter had died, hugging the mother. Be calm, aunt; I am alive and well. Now, don’t be childish, dear; I have been in danger, but here I am.” The body in question has been in the very warmest workroom of his establishment all this while and the leatherlike flesh of the corpse is totally free from odor or putrefaction…Formaldehyde, a product of wood alcohol and a comparatively recent product, is the fluid ..used for the desiccation of the body in question. The Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 17 October 1897: p. 19 Thorne, on finding that he could not get hold of any of the doctor’s money, soon tired of Annie; and Annie, who had been a spoiled and petted child, brought up in the lap of luxury, became miserable and in want. But she stood her sorrows with heroism, and not a complaint escaped her till Thorne began to drink and gamble, at times not returning for weeks to his home, and then under the influence of liquor. Cincinnati, Dec. 10 One of the strangest affairs occurred last night at Elizabethtown, an insignificant hamlet on the Ohio river, ten miles below this city. The McDole family has lived for years in the most abject poverty. The mother is past 80. Besides her, the family consists of son and daughter, each about 60 years of age. The son [Charles]is a veteran, and greatly enfeebled by wounds received in the war and aggravated by insufficient and indifferent food.

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Why, Baldwin, you don’t attend to what I say; I told you I was never going out of mourning again, so what is the use of your proposing any thing to me that I can’t wear all my life? Now tell me, can I always wear cashmere and crape?” There are numerous reports of floors collapsing at wakes and funerals. The fallwas usually blamed forthe deaths of any victims, but in this case the fall guy was an alreadydead woman. Zohn particularly cautions against the idea that Victorians used posing stands to create upright post-mortems. "The posing stand is similar in design and strength to a modern day microphone stand," he says. "There is no way it could possibly hold up the weight of a dead body. If you see a photo with a person and a stand behind them, it’s a guarantee that the person is alive.” a b Bunge, J.A., & Mord, J. (2015). Beyond the dark veil: Post-mortem & mourning photography from the Thanatos archive. San Francisco, CA: Grand Central Press & Last Gasp.As I knew he had been dead over a year, you may imagine my feelings. He came direct towards me, casting his ulster overcoat off on a chair, as he used to do when he came home late. Unlike the method practice by the priests who laid the Pharaohs in their sculptured sarcophagi, the process of Dr. Rosett is not one of mummification, but turns human flesh into heavy white stone… Dr. Rosett can change, and has changed in his laboratory, human bodies and parts of human bodies into glistening silicon in from four to six months. The length of time varies with the condition for the subject at the time of death, the character of the drugs given in the last illness having much to do with determining the length of time necessary for the chemicals used to work upon the flesh. Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 19 July 1903: p. 9 It was on a beautiful moonlight evening in June, and the atmosphere was just about as sultry as it has been at any time during the present summer. I was enjoying myself in the company of some relatives who lived about three miles from Van Wert, on the old Willshire road. At a late hour I arose to go, but my friends insisted that I should remain for the night, as my way would be very lonesome. It was suggested that some ghost might appear to me at the cemetery or some individual might rob me. This was a beautiful burying ground, and was situated about midway on my route. I was quite amused at their artful method of persuasion and laughed vociferously. It was very ridiculous to me, indeed, that there should be a rattling of dry bones, or the apparition of a spirit in a modern cemetery. The people of to-day had made too much advancement, as I thought, for such idle fancies as that. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime

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Over the vaults of the richer dead are erected small chapels, containing an altar, candles, and all kinds of offerings, where the remaining members of the family go through their religious devotions, with beads and prayer book in hand. The ruling desire appears to be to please the dead as it they were living. The flowers they loved are placed over them as if the perfume could penetrate their slabs. One day lately I was passing through the cemetery. I saw a girl kneeling before a slab, with her head bent in her hands. She was singing, with tears in her eyes, the air “Casta Diva.” I stopped and gazed. When she had finished, she rose, and seeing my surprise, said, “C’est maman; elle aimait cet la air.” Shares 9.6k Views 13 Comments Stunning Historic Photos of Indianapolis from the Turn of the 20th CenturyBut that is not all. I had another meeting with that grim phantom! Thirteen months after I went to Bombay I was very ill, and was carried on the Peninsular and Oriental boat to Nepal dying. Three days out we were driving through the monsoon. I was lying weak, helpless in my bunk, the ship rolling terribly. I had the same premonition. The figure was outside the cabin door. I got out of the bunk, jammed myself down in a corner ad, holding onto the washing-bowl with one hand and the raised-wood ornamentation round the porthole with the other, I most unwillingly rehearsed that scene again, and it was no walk-through. I worked as hard as I knew how. But Dr. Ferris and the Nepaul doctor tacitly agreed that if I had caved in on either of these occasions I should not now be spoiling paper in an attempt to edify newspaper readers.