Photo Exhibit Sheds Light On

Victorian Attitude Toward Death

By Nancy K. Crevier

A chilling new display in the reference section of the C.H. Booth Library may be just the thing to beat the summer heat. Designed by Carol Franson-Serra, the silk-lined glass display case in the center of the third floor reference room is the peaceful resting place for an exhibit of postmortem photographs from the 19th and early 20th Century that came into the possession of town historian Dan Cruson, the week of July 11.

“They appeared mysteriously on the historical archive images desk in the library,” said Mr Cruson, “and appear to be a collection put together by an unknown individual, of postmortem photographs from the era when that was a popular practice.” The collection was probably offered at a tag sale, guessed Mr Cruson, as they arrived with a card pricing each photo individually. “When they didn’t sell at the tag sale, I’m guessing that the owner didn’t want to throw them, so brought them to us,” Mr Cruson said, for which he is grateful.

The value in the photographs, consisting mostly of daguerreotypes, negative images shot on silver plated copper that can only be seen against a darkened background, and ambrotypes, images shot on blackened glass, is that they illuminate the Victorian attitude toward death, seen clearly in the photographs, said Mr Cruson.

Photographs of people postmortem, particularly children, were customary after daguerreotype photography became viable, he noted. Because this style of photography required absolute stillness from the subject for at least 15 to 20 seconds, rarely were children photographed — except in death.

As peaceful as they may seem, the adults and children in the photographs are certainly dead, said Mr Cruson. Although the children may appear to be asleep, to his knowledge, sleeping children were not photographed and even in repose, a child would be apt to twitch or turn, ruining a photo session, said Mr Cruson. Nor would a sleeping child have been apt to have slept with a bouquet held in hands clasped upon the chest, he pointed out.

“Postmortem photography was a way of remembering the dead,” he explained, “and possibly the only image a family would ever have of a child. It was a way of illuminating death, during a time when early death was so much more common. It helped ease the family through the reality that this person was dead, to accept the finality.”

Despite the familiarity with death for people of the Victorian era, it did not mean that there was any lessening of grief, as is indicated most poignantly in the daguerreotype of a young woman holding her dead baby. “I think this is the most compelling photo of all of these,” said Mr Cruson. “The mother’s grief-stricken face and lifeless eyes as she sits, the baby’s hands clasped over hers, says everything,” he said.

Postmortem photography was a uniquely American custom, according to his sources, said Mr Cruson, and a custom that tended to focus primarily in the Northeast.

Paper prints allowing many photos to be printed from a negative were available after the 1860s, and it became a common practice for a postmortem picture to be sent to relatives and friends, announcing a death. By the 1880s, the practice of photographing the dead began to wane. “People started moving away from the reality of death to a celebration of the individual’s life,” Mr Cruson said.

Examples of this later 19th Century tradition of tucking a small photo of the deceased, as they appeared in life, in amongst a floral arrangement at the funeral, are part of the C.H. Booth Library exhibit. Examples of simple photo death announcements of that time, printed on black photo cards, are included in the exhibit, as well.

Two photos in the collection are from the 1920s, said Mr Cruson. By then, photos of families and friends clustered about a coffin at the graveside were popular; however, one photo in the collection is unusual in that the graveside photograph depicts the open coffin, a not common occurrence.

“Today, with the exception of a few open-casket funerals, we don’t face death so directly,” said Mr Cruson.

The exhibit of postmortem photography will be on display in the reference section of the C.H. Booth Library through the end of August. It can be viewed during regular library hours. Although the photographs are not of Newtown citizens, the photographs will be turned over to the Newtown Historical Society following the exhibition.