The Victorians were fond of some weird traditions and photography, including post-mortem photography. Although photography was in its infancy and the camera was costly and slow. For a single photograph, one has to sit for few seconds to minutes. Memento mori photography was a trend that came to be in the mid-19th century, which translates to “remember you must die,” was supported by photographers being commissioned at the time by families to photograph their deceased loved ones as a way to memorialize them. Post-mortem photography was also common in the nineteenth century when “death occurred in the home and was quite an ordinary part of life. Their photographs served as keepsakes to remember the deceased. While some people believe that this is just a myth, check out this article by Edward Clint. Here Bygonely has compiled a list of creepy portraits and photographs from the Victorian era posing with the deceased bodies. Vote for your favorite one and tell us what do you think about this tradition.
#1 Edgar Allen Poe post-mortem.
#2 Deceased boy photographed with what was likely his favorite toy, a hoop and stick.
#3 Mother and older sibling posing over a deceased infant.
#4 Dead man in a chair with his dogs.
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5 Comments
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Omg is this scary
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how r his eyes open
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People often have their eyes partially open after they pass
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#5 A family portrait with two deceased babies.
#6 Deceased boy in coffin.
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One Comment
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The boy appears as if he had been sick for some time since his face looks very thin and drawn.
#7 Mother and baby, probably died during childbirth
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3 Comments
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is the baby dead too?
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It’s crazy to realize just 100 years ago if your baby was too big to deliver …they didn’t do cesareans. How traumatic that must have been.
#8 Living husband with his dead wife
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3 Comments
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why is the husband laying there
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He wants goodbye sex?
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#9 Dead Bavarian King Louis II.
#10 Mrs. Della Powell, died 1894.
#11 Living man holding his dead wife.The pain in his is obvious
#12 Deceased girl in casket.
#13 Little girl sitting sideways on the chair, the device propping her up is hidden.
#14 The girl standing in the middle is the deceased.The photographer attempted to make her look more alive by drawing on her pupils.
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7 Comments
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It’s amazing how they could get her to stand up like that… RIP
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She is not deceased. This idea is going around the internet but it’s incorrect. There is no way to make a dead body stand upright in such a way. Probably this girl blinked her eyes at the wrong moment and so the photographer retouched her eyes in the darkroom.
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Obviously you need to do some research into Victorian death photography. They had a stand they attached to the deceased to make it appear they’re standing. You can see that it’s under her jacket by the folds in the fabric. She’s indeed dead.
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Obviously you need to do a lot more research. The stands were actually made for the living, they would help people keep still while they had there picture taken because of long exposure times. They were never meant for the deceased and were not strong enough to hold the weight of a body. This isn’t the only one on this page that’s incorrect.
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She is not deceased. This idea is going around the internet but it’s incorrect. There is no way to make a dead body stand upright in such a way. Probably this girl blinked her eyes at the wrong moment and so the photographer retouched her eyes in the darkroom.
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They used props to hold the bodies. During this time photographs were rare. If someone died this was usually the only picture a family had of their deceased child. As photographs became more common and less expensive this practice became less common.
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#15 It was common for family members pose with their dead loved ones for these photographs
#16 There is just something about her eyes in this photo.
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5 Comments
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They used to paint the eyes open onto the actual image to make them look more alive. That’s probably the case here.
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Nah. She’s alive. You can see her neck and face is drooping
#17 Little girl held in a standing position. The photo is a cabinet card from Villisca, Iowa taken in 1890.
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2 Comments
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Why do they wear a blanket?, do they feel like the death is their fault???
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They want the child to be the focus.
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#18 The dead girl on the end is being propped up with a special device.
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6 Comments
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It’s really great to have some of the backstories to these photos, thank you to the poster!! What’s telling here is that the living persons are ever so slightly blurred, while the deceased is absolutely clear.
#19 The pain in these parents’ faces as they hold their dead child is obvious.
#20 Four girls mourning a dead dog
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5 Comments
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I have read htat the two women in the back are also deceased.
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They seem dead thought…
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Yes they look like dead
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I thought that the woman seated in the chair could be deceased as it seems the woman seated closest to her has her arm around her , perhaps to hold her in place. It doesn’t look natural that she wouldn’t hold the flowers in her hand but that they were placed as part of a final detail and her very erect posture is at odds to the more relaxed postures of the other three ladies. But, they seem to have cared deeply for their dog as well.
#21 Deceased Infant.
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2 Comments
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This photo of the baby is rather haunting.
#22 Dead girl with her toys.
#23 Deceased girls.
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4 Comments
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How sad.
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I thought this exact thing. Very sad to have lost two daughters at the one time.
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probably death due to scarlet fever or diptheria. Both were highly contagious diseases.
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They are now dancing with the Angels in Heaven
#24 A rather odd post-mortem pose.
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4 Comments
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Illegals running rampant in our country
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and so are crazies like you!🤪🤪🤪
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Yeah, wasn’t this the year that your ancestors where the illegal ones???
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#25 The body of William T. Anderson who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
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“Bloody Bill” Anderson; who earned his nickname for a brutal attack he perpetrated which became known as the Centralia Massacre. On September 27, 1864, roughly 80 guerrillas under the command of William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson stopped a train outside of Centralia, Missouri and asked for a volunteer from among the Union soldiers onboard. Fully expecting to be executed, Sergeant Thomas M. Goodman bravely stepped forward. Instead of killing the sergeant, the guerrillas instead executed the line of 22 unarmed Union soldiers and set fire to the train, leaving civilian passengers to deal with their mutilated bodies. The attack became known as the Centralia Massacre; a noteworthy example of the violence directed against noncombatants that took place during the Missouri-Kansas border war.
Sergeant Goodman, the sole military survivor of the Centralia Massacre, declared that the deaths were “the most monstrous and inhuman atrocities ever perpetuated.”-
And it’s still hasn’t changed. There is no honor in man’s inhumanity to man
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#26 Unknown Boy.
#27 With their deceased sibling.
#28 Dead bodies used to look alive by the photographs
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2 Comments
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If you look, it appears as though a mirror was used to reflect the faces of the remaining family members instead of them all posing with the deceased girl… who may well have passed from something very contagious.
#29 A little girl sitting on someone’s lap. The person held her in place while the photo was taken.
#30 In this photo the subject is more in focus than her parents, as they moved while the photograph was being taken.
#31 Dead girl is is lying on the floor of the parlor surrounded by family members.
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4 Comments
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I somehow doubt this is a postmorten photo. a lot of people are smiling, and it looks like they just ate a big dinner. I seem to see a cat in one ladys lap. Much too informal!
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It is odd the respective moods of each side of the family group. I wonder what the story was behind the death of the little girl. She at least looks to be sleeping.
#32 Deceased baby whose eyes are likely painted open.
#33 A deceased woman positioned as alive
#34 Cabinet card of a deceased young woman in her parlor by a Rome, NY photography studio, 1890’s.
#35 The text on the frame reads, “Miss Jeanette Glackmeyer, daughter whose above photo was taken 9 days after death. Mother could not part with only daughter.”
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3 Comments
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9 days later? The time for parting is now!
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The sideways note actualy reads: “Mother could not part with only daughter.”
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Thanks what it says?
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#36 Deceased man with flowers
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4 Comments
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why does he look like Albert Einstein
#37 Deceased girl.
#38 Cabinet card by Beniamino Facchinelli showing deceased infant, c.1890.
#39 Post-mortem photo of Gen. Turner Ashby, a confederate cavalry commander in the American Civil War.
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6 Comments
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Let me take a wild guess, he hated black people.
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Do you know anything about this guy? Or are you just assuming that because he served in the Confederate army?
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Let me guess…you’re a jackass.
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You’re the kind of informed citizen the Left counts on.
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The Articles of Secession state that the south was fighting to keep the institution of slavery. One could speculate that this man may not have hated black people, but certainly fought to keep them enslaved.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/reasons-secession-
He probably had never even seen a black person in his life. Take your politics elsewhere.
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#40 The dead boy was holded from behind the curtain.
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3 Comments
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why he kinda look like trump though, smh
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Yes he does!
#41 Imagine how difficult it must have been to pose with a dead loved one. Here is an example of what happens when people moved.
#42 This one is obvious.
#43 Flowers and religious statues were often used as props in post-mortem photos.
#44 Dead nun in Palermo, Sicily.
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One Comment
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She looks like Paul Newman before he died.
#45 Deceased young woman is holding a small bible or testament.
#46 Deceased girl, her eyes was painted before taking photograph.
#47 Deceased girl.
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2 Comments
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It’s the same photo as #41
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No, it’s 43
#48 Sleeping Girl
#49 Women sitting next to dead girl. These death portrait were meant to serve as mementos of the deceased loved one.
#50 Sometimes, photographers would try to make it appear like the dead person was sleeping as in this photo.
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4 Comments
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both girls are dead. alot of the time you can tell, by their hands. they are darker almost black.
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I’ve seen this one many times. The girl on the right is her twin sister and very much alive
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Hands could just as well be tanned
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You can tell the girl on the right lost a friend here 🙁
#51 Sometimes it was impossible to make the subjects look alive as in this photo.
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4 Comments
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So sad 🥺
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She’s got some big mitts there.
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She- looks like a man.
#52 The Corpse of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
#53 Cabinet cards were made available as photography progressed – multiple copies of the same image could be created and mailed to relatives.
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2 Comments
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Mmmmm…Krispy Kreme…
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These pictures very often were placed on tombstones in family cemeteries. I remember seeing them.
#54 Boy posing with deceased boy wearing the same cloth.
#55 Dead men positioned as alive, photographer used his arm to support the head.
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5 Comments
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1875 portrait of author Lewis Carrol often incorrectly described as a post mortem photo.
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Bored to death i think
#56 A mother covers her face while holding her dead baby.
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4 Comments
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I am not sure I believe some of these baby ones. It was the way back then for parents to hide in the background so they could take photos of their babies. Not because the baby was dead but because they couldn’t or wouldn’t sit up by themselves.
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I pretty sure their dead now
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Casper holding baby
#57 She almost looks alive in this photograph.
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6 Comments
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Standing up straight and looking directly at the camera, her arm bent and holding rosary beads, she was definitely alive.
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No, they had implements they used to pose the deceased. Do some research.
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#58 Difficult to tell which one is deceased.
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6 Comments
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Left
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the device is behind both
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You are right
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The girl on the left is expired…her eyes are foggy as opposed to her brother who you can clearly see his pupils. I dunno
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I think they’re both dead in this picture as it looks like propping up devices behind both of them.
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#59 Photographers employed a variety of tricks to make their subjects look more life-like
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6 Comments
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Which one is alive
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they are both dead
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By now there are ill bet
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The one on the right is dead. Notice how dark her hands are compared to the sister. Blood is pooling in her hands due to no circulation.
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Both of them are alive.
#60 A tintype stand is used to help prevent movement.
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9 Comments
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I’d smash the one on the right.
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bro same
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SAME
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lmao
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These fashionable ladies look very much alive!!
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These poses would have been impossible with a limp, lifeless body. They were both alive.
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Bodies do not remain limp for long… rigor Mortis sets in and quickly the body of a deceased person becomes quite frigid.
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But then rigor mortis passes and they again become limp.
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This photo has no provenance and is believed to be a fake.
When I was very young during family reunions or visits with the grandparents we frequently went to family cemeteries. There were many tombstones with pictures of the deceased.