Memento Mori

Memento Mori means, "Remember your mortality." What better way than by taking a death portrait with a recently deceased loved one? In honor of Halloween and all things creepy, I've decided to post something freaky every Friday of the month. This week: Victorian Death Portraits! That's right -- gal in the middle with the sweet fingerless gloves? She most likely bit it a few days prior to this photo!


If you're not familiar with post-mortem photography, you're probably thinking, "What the f---!" Let me explain. Portraiture became affordable to the general public after the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839. Less expensive than a painted picture, this method allowed the middle class to produce portraits of loved ones. But why limit photos to the living! Subjects also included their recently departed kin. Who wouldn't want to remember Grandpa with a spooky, murky, grey scale image.

Right photo from The Thanatos Archive
To make things just a little bit creepier, early post-mortem photographs often showed the body propped up, sometimes holding or "interacting" with an object. This was an (often poor) attempt to make the corpse appear alive. Dad was given his favorite book or newspaper. Little Timmy was given his favorite toy to clutch (in his cold, dead hands). Baby Sue was placed in her mothers' arms, and Ma looked at the camera proudly, as if there was still a beating heart inside. 


Some post-mortems went as far as to keep the deads' eyes open. Young lady in the middle here looks like she's staring off into the distance, thinking a satisfying thought, maybe. Nope, she's dead. The saddest part is that many of these stiffs only had one photo ever taken of them and they weren't even alive to see it. I imagine the poorer classes would save up for a death portrait, as part of the funeral arrangements to commemorate the dead.

Right photo from The Thanatos Archive

As time went on, photographing the corpse in a more natural setting became favorable -- primarily, a coffin. You might be wondering, "What exactly did they DO with these photos?" They didn't make scrap books and tuck them away. Oh, no. Mostly, the portraits were put on display prominently in the home -- a constant reminder that so-and-so has died. Or perhaps, that so-and-so was once alive, depending on the type of death portrait the family chose. The practice eventually died out (pun intended) towards the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Probably because it was depressingly weird.


Today, these photos are seen as creepy and perhaps a tad disrespectful. But during their time, they were just another part of the "death dance". After all, we still play dress up with our deceased: we spruce them up in fancy clothes and makeup, and put them on display for a room of mourners. Modern day post-mortem practices are still pretty creepy, even after all these years.