Remembering the Victorian era, what comes first to your mind? Can the romantic novels of the Bronte sisters and the sentimental Charles Dickens, or can tight women's corsets and even Puritanism?
But it turns out that the era of the reign of Queen Victoria left us another legacy - a fashion for the posthumous photos of deceased people, having learned about which, you will find this period the darkest and most macabre in the history of mankind!
On the origin of the tradition of photographing the dead, there are many reasons and versions, and they are all closely intertwined with each other ...
And to start, perhaps, is with the "cult of death." It is known that since the death of her husband - Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria never mourned. Moreover, even obligatory requirements appeared in everyday life - after the death of close women they wore black clothes for another four years, and in the following four they could only wear white, gray or purple colors. Men also had exactly a year to wear a black bandage on their sleeves.
The Victorian era is the period of the highest infant mortality, especially among newborns and children of primary school age!
The child's posthumous photo is everything that remained in the memory of the parents.
And the creation of such "sentimental" souvenirs turned into an ordinary and soulless process - the deceased children dressed up, they painted their eyes and blushed cheeks, they were put on their knees by all family members, put or put on a chair with their favorite toys.
The last one in the "locomotive" girl did not just blink ...
Well, is it not noticeable that someone is holding this child in his lap?
And this girl does not sleep at all ...
And one of these little sisters does not rest ...
In general, the photographer did everything that as a result in the photo the dead member of the family was no different from the living!
One of the most important reasons for the appearance of creepy posthumous photos in the Victorian era is the dawn of the art of photography and the invention of the daguerreotype, which made photography accessible to those who could not afford to paint a portrait, and ... the opportunity to perpetuate the dead in memory.
Just think, the price of one photo in this period was about $ 7, which for today's money is up to $ 200. And unless during a life someone can so to fork up for the sake of one frame? But a tribute to the deceased is sacred!
It is terrible to talk about this, but the posthumous photos were fashion and business at the same time. Photographers have perfected their skills in this direction.
You will not believe, but in order to fix in the frame of the deceased standing or sitting, they even invented a special tripod!
And sometimes it was impossible to find the dead on posthumous photos - and this is in the total absence of a photoshop ... Such pictures were determined only by special mark-symbols, like the hands of a clock, stopped on the date of death, broken flower stalk or an inverted rose in hands.
The heroine of this photo - Ann Davidson, 18, in the frame is already dead. It is known that she was hit by a train, and only the upper part of the body remained unscathed. But the photographer easily coped with the task - on a printed photo the girl, as if nothing had happened, touches the white roses ...
The horror prompts that on posthumous photos next to a dead child or even a senior member of the family, all the other living people always smile and look quite cheerful!
These parents have not yet realized that their child is dead?!?
And on this frame of the deceased daughter dorisovali eyes and she is "alive all living"!
Did you notice that someone supports the boy behind the curtain?
Favorite dogs are nearby and no one will guess that the owner has long been in the world otherwise ...
A widely used device - the dead looks out of the window.
We'll pretend that we did not notice the tripod ...
Do you think this man was tired and lay down to rest?
Is not it creepy?
Well, shall we start again? What comes first when you think about the Victorian era?