What creeps me more is that anyone would manufacture a casket with a window.
Oh it was a thing. Somebody will probably post the gruesome details as to why.
Many people used to pose the recently deceased and take photographs of them as keepsakes. I’ve seen pictured of multiple dead posed together, and one particularly creepy picture of a live little sister posing with her dead older sister. I bet the memory of that stayed with her!
Completely different thing, but a there’s a tomb with a glass structure surrounding it in Rock Creek Cemetery in DC. I always wondered what the story was about that, and your post caused me to search for it just now:
Just consider it a tomb with a view. Not much of a view but a view nonetheless.
About 10 years ago, there was a scam, probably to generate web hits, on video camera allegedly installed in a buried casket to watch the body decompose.
Lead coffin no doubt. That's why her remains were in such good condition. And they used glass windows because people were afraid that they'd end up burying someone who wasn't actually dead. They also had coffins that would be attached to a bell above ground, so that if the person in the coffin woke up, they'd be able to alert people. Body snatchers were still active in the late 19th century too.
In Buenos Aires there is a cemetery named Cementerio de la Recoleta. It is like a city with all the graves above ground in small mausoleums. Each one is unique. Many have glass doors and pictures inside and chairs for sitting. Some have windows in the casket. Many are very elaborate inside and out. It is a fascinating place to visit.
What creeps me more is that anyone would manufacture a casket with a window.
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Perhaps to allow viewing at the funeral without odor at a time when embalming wasn’t normal..