Cheeks were reddened to appear flushed; sometimes even eyes were painted on closed eyelids.
Often the living family members would surround the corpse and pose alongside.
Dead children are poised as if asleep, surrounded by the toys they played with while alive.
While many of these photos may appear morbid to modern sensibilities, postmortem photographs are sorrowful images.
They depict grieving parents, tenderly holding their lost child.
They show wives caressing the faces of lost husbands.
Some are framed and hung on the wall.
For many, a postmortem photo was the first and only portrait of someone.
But death was a different thing.
Can you photograph this?
implored one young mother, opening a wooden basket to reveal a tiny face like waxwork.
Photo: William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
Photo: National Library of Norway
