Throughout the 19th century, the Paris morgue attracted thousand of visitors every day.
Going to the morgue was often compared to going to the theatre.
Most went their to gawk and gossip.
Even the kids were not spared from this ghoulish ritual.
People visiting the morgue in Paris to view the cadavers.
The door stands open, and all are free to enter.
The bodies were displayed behind a glass window on slanted marble slabs.
They were stripped naked with only a loin cloth to protect their modesty.
The actual clothes were hung above them to help with identification.
Cold water dripped from a pipe above their heads to slow down decomposition.
This was before the days of refrigeration.
The morgue became more flamboyant and even more accessible to the public.
Morgue de Paris by Jean Henry Marlet.
One journalist ofLe Petit Journalonce reported:
This morning, the crowd still waited outside the Morgue.
I have already said it and I will say it again, the cadavers will not be on view.
InThe Innocent Abroad(1869), Mark Twain writes about a trip to the morgue.
A glimpse of the Paris Morgue’s interior.
Lithograph by Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer.
At another time, the accidental death of a 4-year-old girl pulled in a crowd of more than 150,000.
This was the case withInconnue de la Seinethe unknown woman of the Seine.
In the 1880s, the body of a young woman was fished out of the Seine River.
The interior of Morgue de Paris in 1845.
