Victorian death photographs

by J.D. Griffioen (Subscribe to J.D. Griffioen's posts) Oct 18th 2006 4:00PM

I remember years before my wife became pregnant, years before we were even married, I came across a reference to Victorian death photography in a book and followed up on it, and was startled too find the kind of images that are available on this web page. The Victorians, living in an age of much-higher infant mortality and in a world filled with more dangers and diseases put the new technology of photography right to use by photographing their dead infants and relatives. I can't help but wonder if this type of photography did not naturally evolve with the beginnings of the medium, when longer exposure times would have made it difficult to photograph someone's dead uncle while he was alive, and almost impossible to photograph a squirming infant.

I see that Greg found the same boingboing link and adds an interesting element to the discussion: modern stillborn photography and the complexity of emotion involved in all such photographs. He writes, "unfamiliarity with funerary photos--or bereavement photos, as they're now often called-- falls somewhere near the intersections of Americans' uncomfortable, arms-length relationship with death, the whipsawing grief of a baby dying, and the sheer cluelessness of new parents in general."

I, too, started writing this post as just a "creepy Halloween" thing, but in the end I am left numb by some empathetic stretch towards those dads and moms whose kids died a hundred and fifty years ago, and how horrible it must have been, and still is.

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Comments (8)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

thordora 10-18-2006 @ 4:10PM

Seeing all those dead babies makes me incredibly glad that my girls, similar ages to many in those photos, have their vaccinations.

I find the idea of stillborn/infant death photos incredibly comforting, and many examples I've seen heartbreakingly beautiful.

I know I would want as many pieces of "proof" of their existence if my girls died.

Amanda. 10-18-2006 @ 5:00PM

One of my very good friends lost her baby shortly after birth and admist all the grief, chaos, and morphine (c-section); no picture was taken of her baby prior to his cremation. She brings up her regrets over not having any pictures of him often. I wish I had known about Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep when he was born and passed.

I follow the blog of a woman whose baby died shortly after birth and she brought the baby home with her and took pictures. While I can never truly put myself in the position of someone who has lost a child, I think I would want to make sure I had plenty of pictures.

Side note, but those books of the dead were a focal point of the movie "The Others" with Nicole Kidman.

Christina 10-18-2006 @ 4:44PM

Those are some amazing, and tragically beautiful pictures.

I can completely understand the need for those pictures, especially in Victorian times. When you only have your picture taken a few times in your entire life, it makes sense to take a picture if a child dies. That may be the only picture you ever have of them.

I had a sister, born in the mid-70's, who I never met because she died just over a week after she was born. No pictures were ever taken of her, and at times it is as if she never existed. I would have loved to have seen a picture of her, even if it was after her death.

Jessie 10-18-2006 @ 4:59PM

So Beautiful...so so beautiful...they look like sleeping angels.

Kimberly 10-18-2006 @ 5:14PM

A couple of years back the mother of one of my grade 6 boys gave birth to a stillborn son. The pregnancy had been a very big part of our classroom, and when things started to go wrong (the stillbirth was a foregone conclusion), I spent a lot of time with this boy working through his feelings of grief and loss and the unfairness of the world.

A few days after the birth, he came up to my desk and shyly asked me if he could show me something: It was a photograph of him in the hospital, holding the blanket swaddled body of his brother.

It was one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking, touching photographs I have ever seen. I feel priviledged that he shared it with me, and grateful that he will have it to remember his brother by.

Lotta 10-19-2006 @ 12:45AM

Gosh, I was going to do the same thing. Clicked on the link via Boing Boing to potentially post on my blog for Halloween creepy. But I got teary looking at all those wee babes in their funeral photos. Especially the ones that were posed with their mothers and siblings. I can't imagine the fears those families had at losing their children so easily. Makes you realize why they had such strict parenting schedules back then. Likely based on fear. Poor things.

christi 10-19-2006 @ 10:45AM

Remember the movie with Nicole Kidman, "The Others?" This is the first time I had heard about these types of photos.

Simone 10-29-2006 @ 10:23AM

Those pictures are beautiful. My son, Ryder was stillborn on May 2, 2006. I'm very grateful to have all the pictures of him. I know many women who I've met on the national stillbirth society website who don't have very many pictures of their children who died. Even though I have 48 wonderful pictures I wouldn't trade for anything....it's somehow not ever going to be enough. I will never get any more pictures of my son. I look at them everyday.

Thank you to everyone who has posted such nice comments about the stillborn pictures. I encourage everyone who feels led to help with this awful tragedy to go to www.stillnomore.org to find out just how often it really does happen even today!

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