Mourning Photography
Tiny Tuesday is a somber sight…a little morbid and frightful too!
Here is a sixth plate daguerreotype of an unknown woman posing beside her deceased mother. Photographs such as this are known as postmortem or mourning photography, where the deceased would be pictured alone or surrounded by loved ones. The daguerreotype plate was covered with a brass mat and glass cover, then wrapped within a brass preserver. The case itself is covered in heavy embossed paper.
The daguerreotype was invented by French artist Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787 – 1851) and introduced to the public in 1839. To create a daguerreotype, a thin sheet of silver-plated copper is polished and treated to create a mirror-like image. Depending on the angle it is viewed, the image can appear as positive or negative, a key distinction between this form of photography and others. While all varieties of early photography took time to fully develop, the inexpensive cost of daguerreotypes meant that they soared in popularity from the 1840s through the 1860s.
Memorial portraits existed well before the invention of photography, though the cost to have a portrait or death scene drawn or painted was out of reach for many. The invention of the daguerreotype meant that families could capture the image of their loved one for a relatively low cost. Postmortem photography became a staple of Victorian mourning, as it was often the last keepsake a family would have. This image entered the FRHS collection in the 1980s as part of a large assortment of photographic material pertaining to Fall River’s Durfee/Carr family.
Whether they be images of parents, children, or even beloved pets, the Victorians took great care to memorialize their dead.