Pictures of dead people seem disturbing, right? How about pictures of dead children? Even more disturbing, right? Not necessarily.
To Americans living in the late 19th century, post mortem photography of family members (especially children) was incredibly popular. It was a way for family members to memorialize someone who had lost their lives too soon.
Some background information:
The first ever photograph was created by a man name Daguerre, in about 1820. He called this process of photography a daguerreotype; it was done by printing an intricate picture on a silver plate (Bate). This form of photography was not fully accepted until 1839 when it was published for the public. Despite the publication, this form was still very rarely used for post mortem photographs because it was expensive, due to the use of silver (Bate). In 1855, the Collodion wet plate became a popular form of photography. The wet plate was cheaper because it used sheets of glass instead of silver, but it caused different problems: it was incredibly messy, and took an incredibly long time. “Wet plate” was extremely descriptive because these photographs were inky and wet– many photographers who used wet plates had constant stains on their bodies from the ink (Bate). Dry film was not created until 1871, and although it made it easier for amateurs to take pictures, wet plate photography was still seen as higher scale, and often times it was more popularly used with professional photographers (Mead).
Back to Post Mortem Photography:
Photographers who specialized in post mortem photography were more likely to use wet plates because of the time period, and the hierarchical belief that wet plates produced a better photograph than dry film (Mead.) A drawback of wet plate photography was that the pictures took an extensive time to develop, which meant the person being photographed had to stay completely still for an extended amount of time. This is why post mortem photography of children was popular: it is much easier to make a dead baby sit still than a live one (Sorry for the “dead baby” jokes- they are unintentional).
Most people had very few pictures taken of them throughout their lives. In many cases, a post mortem photograph would be the only picture ever taken of a person. In the 1800’s photography was a luxury that was not available to most members of society. Only people who could afford to own a camera and could process film successfully had access to photography– this meant only economic elitists, professional photographers, or people who would occasionally pay professional photographers to capture special moments (like the death of a child…).
The positive correlation between mortality rates and popularity of post mortem photography provides the main reason that post-mortem photography of children in the late 1800’s was so popular. The mortality rate for children in the US was the highest it had ever been between the years 1850 and 1895, according to the US Bureau of Census (Haines.) From 1850 to 1895, the mortality rates of children in the US ranged from 110.8 to 216.8 per every 1,000 births. These mortality rates started going down in the 1900’s due to improvements in public health and safety, cleaner sewage disposal and cleaner water supplies. As children mortality rates went down, the popularity of post mortem baby pictures also decreased (Meinwald).
Citations:
“The Migration of Pictures after Death (26 Pics).” Videos, Pictures, Celebs, Flash Games. April 20, 2009. Accessed January 27, 2015. http://acidcow.com/pics/1453-the-migration-of-pictures-after-death-26-pics.html.
Meinwald, Dan. “MEMENTO MORI: DEATH AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA.” UCLA Arts. Accessed January 27, 2015. http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/terminals/meinwald/meinwald3.html.
Haines, Micheal. “Fertility and Mortality in the United States.” EHnet. Accessed January 27, 2015. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/fertility-and-mortality-in-the-united-states/.
Mead, Carver (2001) The Evolution of Electronic Photography. In: Final program and proceedings : IS & T’s PICS Conference, 54th Annual conference, April 22-25, 2001, the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Society for Imaging Science and Technology , Springfield, VA, p. 2. ISBN 9780892082322
Bate, David. 2009. Photography : The Key Concepts. Oxford, GBR: Berg Publishers. Accessed January 27, 2015. ProQuest ebrary.
Evolution of Historical Photography 