Post-mortem photography

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A 19th century family portrait with a small photo of a mother (and a now deceased) child has been placed on a baby's high chair along with flowers. (c. 1894)

Post-Mortem photography involved photographing the deceased. While an unusual practice by modern standards, this type of photography was fairly common up into the late 19th century and early 20th century. During these times, early death, especially the early death of a child, was much more commonplace, and photography was still somewhat of a novelty. This lent societal acceptance to the practice of photographing the dead, often with some of the living family members included in the portrait.

This practice may have been somewhat more common in Europe, but was widely practiced in the USA.

Variations on this practice included photographing a family portrait with a “shrine” to the dead family member included in the pose or posing next to the grave of the departed. Items of the departed member, such as photographs, toys and flowers might all be included in the composition.