I think the term death picture is a bit misleading, it is really an after
death picture. Certainly it would be gruesome to take pictures of the actual
death event (who wants to see the mangled body at a car wreck). But I can
understand families in the past wanting a final picture of their loved one,
since photographs were often expensive or required going to a studio and
were therefore taken infrequently during a person's life. We should also
remember that things that are gruesome to us did not necessarily have the
same effect on people who lived in a time when death was a much more
frequent and personal experience. Death often happened at home, not in a
hospital (where the body gets attended to by strangers not family members).
People had large families because it was common for children to die and
their aged parents often lived with them, so they saw death regularly.
Gary Templeman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Melody B" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 5:34 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Death Certificates
OT I know, but it used to be quite the "thing" once upon a time to
have death pictures. But yes, I agree a gruesome thought.
I use them as Source Detail pictures as well.
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