Sleeping Beauty

 Post-Morteum Photography or Death Photography. This type of photography peaked in popularity in the early 19^th century. It was a way for a family to have a keepsake of a loved one that had passed, especially with infants and children due to the high mortality rate in the Victorian Era. With the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 families that could not afford to sit for a painting portrait could far more afford a photography session.  When carte de vista was invented, which allowed multiple prints; families were able to send relatives photos of ones that had passed. There eventually became a shift in how Death Photography was viewed, death became viewed as a social discomfort and taking photos of the deceased became vulgar and taboo. 

The earlier Death Photos were of a loved one propped up in a casket, later it became more of an art form and the subject would be posed in various positions with their loved ones to look lifelike, or the subject looking as if they were in a deep sleep. Many of the photos of children were taken with their mothers or placed in a crib or bed with a favorite toy. Siblings were often photographed together. To get the effect that the subject was lifelike they would paint pupils on the photographic print, or propping the subjects eyes open.  In some photos a rosy tint was added to the cheeks. Sometimes the only way a person can tell the living from the dead in these photos are that the images of the living are sometimes blurred because of how long a photography session would last, this can be seen in many photo collections.

There are museums and private collectors that display these throughout the world. One of the most famous collections is called “Sleeping Beauty” which is housed at the Burns Archives in the United States http://www.burnsarchive.com/ another collection is from the Thantos Archive in Seattle Washington. http://thanatos.net/

What caused the shift of the dead being shown as something vulgar and not to be seen or talked about? The media shows us death every day. Being in the paranormal field and investigating the possibilities of life after death puts our type of research to some people as just that. On a few occasions I have had prospective clients say that they did not want people in their locations to research the possibility of ghost because they felt it was disrespectful. For example do you feel that investigating a location that a murder had occurred disrespectful? Would it be disrespectful to the surviving family members? Is it that they just want to forget?

-Raven