Buzz
Post-mortem photography, also known as photographing the dead, originated in the 1800s as a method of memorializing those who passed away. It became especially prevalent during wartime, used in the wake of disasters, and even performed for questionable scientific purposes. At a time when death rates were higher, people had an unsettling fascination with death. Yet, what is even more chilling than the photos themselves are the stories that accompany them. The history of capturing images of the dead is filled with deceitful science, sorrow, and the exploitation of tragedy for profit.
10. Exploiting the Dead for Gain
A 1900 newspaper article described a photographer who captured images of dead soldiers after US Civil War battles. During one of his grim expeditions, the photographer visited the Antietam battlefield three days after the battle, one of the deadliest days of the Civil War with more than 22,000 casualties. The ground was strewn with bodies to photograph. The photographer, whose name was not mentioned in the report, recalled:
It would be pointless to revisit that horrific scene, to describe the horrific aftermath of that dreadful fight, which left so many widows and orphans. I was both nervous and exhilarated [ . . ] when, unknowingly, I placed one leg of the camera stand on the chest of a dead Union drummer boy. Somehow, he had been partly buried in a patch of soft soil. Only the buttons on his jacket and one foot were visible.
The photographer took his shots and later developed them. He shared that the photos “sold like wildfire for 50 cents and a dollar each. I pocketed nearly $2,000 in less than two weeks.”
9. Positioning the Dead for Photographs
In the late 1800s, a photographer moved to Chicago with dreams of striking it rich. His aspirations of big-city success were short-lived, and soon he found himself financially destitute, with his photography business on the brink of collapse. In a last-ditch effort to revive his career, he began poring over the death notices in the local newspapers. He then set off to visit families who had recently lost loved ones, offering to take photographs of the deceased. Business boomed, and he quickly earned a reputation for post-mortem photography.
He shared some of his more macabre experiences with a newspaper, recounting one instance where he had to wait for a father to pass away: “Half an hour after the old gentleman drew his last breath, and before rigor mortis set in, we had him seated in a chair, with his eyes held open with thick mucilage between his eyelids and brow, and his legs crossed.” In another case, he was forced to remove a body from an icebox and prop it up for a photograph. Although the resulting image was chilling, the family was satisfied with the outcome.
The photographer explained that he would often stuff the deceased’s cheeks with cotton to make their faces appear more lifelike. To keep their eyes open, he would use pins or mucilage. In the most extreme situations, he would take a photograph and then hire an artist to paint the eyes and cover up any noticeable skin imperfections.
8. Capturing the Eyes of the Murdered
A newspaper article from 1904 contains a particularly intriguing passage: “It has long been assumed by the uninformed that the eye of, say, a murdered person holds the image of their killer. Moreover, it is widely believed that from the deceased eye, a photograph of the murderer could be extracted.”
This theory was fascinating for its time, but did anyone ever attempt to prove it? In 1885, police in Kansas City actually tested this bizarre idea. They took a photograph of Katie Conway’s eyes. She had been discovered murdered, and the detectives were stumped as to who the killer might have been. The plan was to examine the photograph under a microscope “to see if the image of the man who delivered the fatal blow can be seen.” Of course, the experiment produced no results.
7. The New York Morgue
In the late 1800s, after witnessing countless unidentified bodies being sent to the New York morgue, the superintendent of Bellevue Hospital came up with the idea to photograph these nameless deceased individuals before they were moved to the “dead house.” By the fall of 1885, there was “a gallery of these pictures numbering over 600.” The negatives were carefully stored away in case any friends or family members came forward to identify the bodies and wished to receive a keepsake photo of the deceased. For some families, it would be the only photograph they ever had of their loved ones.
There were instances where the bodies were so badly mangled or diseased that identifying them through photographs may have been impossible. The clothing was documented in a ledger and stored for up to three months, along with any personal items found in the deceased's pockets. People who were searching for a missing person were assured they would be “courteously received and assisted in every way to identify the lost.”
6. One Last Picture
A woman passed away on February 8, 1887. She was laid to rest on February 21, but shortly afterward, her grieving husband decided he wanted her exhumed and photographed. He confided in his friends about his intentions, and his late wife’s mother caught wind of it. She pleaded with him to abandon the plan, but he refused to listen.
In early March, the man, “accompanied by the sexton and his assistants, went to the cemetery and began shoveling the frozen earth from the freshly dug grave.” A crowd quickly gathered, and soon, his former mother-in-law arrived, crying and begging the man to cease this madness. The men in the crowd were enraged by the scene and threatened the determined husband, but he persisted. Finally, the coffin was unearthed, the lid removed, and the body lifted from the grave. A photograph was taken of his wife, and then she was returned to the earth for a second burial.
The residents of Avon, Michigan, considered the man to be insane. One local reportedly said, “We’ll yet make a black bird of him that’ll smell of tar.”
5. Ghouls And Camera Fiends
On September 8, 1900, Galveston, Texas, was struck by a devastating hurricane and catastrophic flooding, an event that came to be known as the Galveston Horror. Estimates place the death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 lives lost during and following the massive storm. As is often the case with tragedy, it brought out the worst in some people. The military was deployed to restore order and clean up the wreckage. Their orders were clear: “kill any person caught in the act of robbing the dead.” The soldiers ended up shooting 125 of these “ghouls.”
Even more disturbing were the “camera fiends,” who traveled around taking photographs of the deceased for profit. Reports indicated that guards caught and killed two photographers who were “caught in the act of photographing the nude bodies of dead women and girls. Their cameras were destroyed by the soldiers, and the negatives were wiped out.” The soldiers and the remaining survivors then collected the bodies and burned them on funeral pyres to curb the spread of disease.
4. Pinning On Clothing
As the practice of posthumous photography gained popularity in the late 1800s, numerous articles on the subject began to appear in newspapers. This morbid fascination spurred people to explore the hidden aspects of the profession, and those who could afford the necessary equipment realized they could make a good profit by posing deceased individuals for photographs.
In 1885, it was reported that photographers, much like doctors and undertakers, had become desensitized to working with the dead. One story described a photographer so accustomed to his craft that when the drapery on a posed body failed to hang properly from the shoulders, “he took a large pin from the end of his waistcoat and pinned the drapery to the flesh.” When questioned about his behavior, the photographer calmly explained that the deceased could not feel anything.
The public's discomfort with the idea of showing such disrespect to the deceased likely led many posthumous photographers to promote their empathy for the dead, or to emphasize that their work was done privately and with care.
3. The Innocence Of Babies
One of the most devastating experiences a parent can endure is the death of their child. In 1900, the infant mortality rate was shockingly high, with approximately 165 out of every 1,000 infants passing away within their first year. This starkly contrasts with the much lower rate of seven deaths per 1,000 in 1997.
The grief of losing such a young life was unbearable, and many parents sought ways to cope with their overwhelming sorrow. One method that emerged was to have a photograph taken of the deceased infant. A photographer recounted how he became involved in posthumous photography for parents who had lost their babies:
I had just started my career in photography, having been at my new studio for only a couple of weeks, when one morning a woman burst into my office, weeping uncontrollably. She was not wearing a hat and carried a bundle wrapped in a blue shawl. She sat by the window, gently rocking the bundle in her arms. After a while, she stopped crying and said: “I want a picture of my baby. Will you take it?”
The photographer agreed to take the photograph and asked the woman where her child was:
She then unwrapped the shawl and revealed a tiny, pale face resting in her arms. The shock was so overwhelming that I nearly stumbled. “My God, woman,” I exclaimed, “The child is dead.” She nodded. “I know,” she replied, “but I still want his picture. I will never forget him as he is, but I want something to remember him by.”
2. Diagnosed With Necrophilism
In 1911, the sensational case of Louise Vermilya, a notorious poisoner, gripped the headlines. The public found it hard to believe that a seemingly healthy, sane woman could have murdered eight members of her family and one police officer. To understand the possible motives behind her gruesome actions, doctors delved into her medical history, looking for any potential underlying cause. They considered the possibility of her suffering from “necrophilism” (also known as necrophilia), a rare and disturbing condition. Had she been diagnosed with necrophilism at the time, she would have been declared unfit to stand trial and sent to an asylum instead of facing punishment for her crimes.
Before her horrifying crimes were uncovered, Mrs. Vermilya’s obsession with the dead was already known by her neighbors and local undertakers. She regularly volunteered to assist in caring for the deceased and participated in the embalming process. When authorities searched her bedroom, referred to as the “Death Chamber,” they found the walls adorned with “photographs of the dead and of cemeteries.” Interestingly, most of these photographs were of individuals and tombstones unrelated to her own life. Her morbid curiosity had driven her to purchase and display these eerie images.
The coroner who worked on her case was convinced that Louise Vermilya’s actions were indicative of necrophilism. He commented, “In no other way can I account for Mrs. Vermilya’s ghoulish delight in the dead and in things connected with death.”
1. Photographing Death Itself
The concept of photographing death itself might seem like the plot of a science fiction tale, but in 1897, a professor claimed to have successfully captured the moment when life departed the body, using what he referred to as 'Kritik rays.' He explained, 'The Kritik rays are emitted from a vacuum tube, and they are so intense that they almost immediately penetrate the body when directed at it for the experiment.'
According to the professor, the images captured on photographic plates varied depending on whether they were applied to living or deceased tissue. He suggested that, in the future, Kritik rays could be used in hospitals to definitively determine whether someone was truly alive or dead. Although the fear of being buried alive was understandable during that period, the more practical approach seemed to be simply delaying burial, rather than relying on this new technology to ascertain a person's true status.
