I am a professional engineer by trade, but also a genealogist and historian by avocation. A part of genealogy is the study not only of people, but of the customs and mores of the time.
During the Victorian period, and for sometime after, during the infancy of photography, it was common to take photos of loved ones after they died. Most people today find that practice to be morbid, but the study of genealogy requires a look at those pieces of our past that are not so pleasant.
The photo below is of Lela Maberry, my 2nd cousin, twice removed. She died in 1899 at age eleven. I found her memento mori in a box of photographs handed down by my g.g.grandmother
3 comments:
I knew about the practice but I did not realize that it had a name. That is a sad, but still beautiful picture.
She doesn't actually look dead. Beautiful girl.. What did she die of?
I'm sure I have the answer in a stack of CD's here somewhere. :)
If you look at some of the memento more photos on line, many of them look very lifelike. It depends on the talent of the photographer and the time & type of death. SOme of them are very grotesque.
I don't have her cause of death, and death certificates weren't always filed back then.
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