[C19fan]

Pretty macabre by modern standards. Sort of sad to see all the dead infants and children but this was before the era of vaccinations. Perhaps those anti-vaccine freaks should view these photos as a reminder of the benefits modern medicine and sanitation has brought. Besides the macabre setting one of the reasons people had gloomy faces was one had to sit still for several minutes for the photograph so you needed to have a face that would still for that amount of time.

[DJ MacWoW]

They also made “hair remembrances”. They would weave the deceased’s hair into the shape of a ring to wear or make “flowers” out of it to hang on a wall.

[patriot08]

In the second photo..which one is the departed? Not sure.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

My grandmother had photos of relatives in coffins in the 60’s so I think it was still commonplace at least in the south through the 60’s.

[truth_seeker]

In the late 1880s through early 1890s my great grandparents had seven children. Only four lived to become adults.

During one week, two of the children died from diphtheria. Another once deadly disease, now largely eradicated by vaccines.

They lived in Vermillion, South Dakota.

[ScottinVA]

In some cases, these might’ve been the only opportunity for these families to immortalize their loved ones...

It’s clear it was all done out of love... Good God, that must have been difficult...

[windcliff]

There is a book called Wisconsin Death Trip that contains many photos like these.

[martin_fierro]

Yeah, I've come across some of these while doing genealogy research.

Some today would view the practice as gruesome, but I can understand it:

• Photography was still relatively new, albeit expensive
• grieving relatives wanted to preserve just one more memory of the deceased

Touching, really.

[Safetgiver]

Gee. Some of them looked like Democrat voters.

[TheOldLady]

When my late mother-in-law was just a girl, she was a nanny for a family in Italy (she was from Switzerland).

Their 4-year-old child died, and mom had to pose her and sit next to her for the funerary photo.

She said that was the creepiest thing that she ever had to do.

[GOPJ]

Taking pictures was more expensive - and rare - back then. These might have been the only pictures of the dead child...