Disturbing photograph

[Sloe Gin]

I was looking at the Victorian carte de visite photographs on ebay. These were posed studio portraits which were given out to friends and family; they were all the rage circa the 1860s and people would collect them in albums.

I came across a right shocker.  A mother holding her dead baby  Imagine getting all dressed up and trotting down to the studio, posing, and then handing out the souvenirs later.  I know attitudes to death were different then (and this one is American) but who the blazes would want that in their album!

Item no is 400033271155 if you want to have a look, or go to Collectables > Photographic Images > Antique pre-1940 > CDVs  and no, I have no connection with the vendor!

[daval57]

It's not that unusual.
Shocking to us nowadays but it was very common for folk to have a photo taken of a child that died in infancy.
I must say, I've not seen many where mother has been holding child but photos of dead weans were common.

Dave

[vonni]

Blimey - just had a look......

you can only imagine what she must have been thinking - maybe she could not bear to let her baby go...

Vonni

[Pels.]

Hard for us to believe isn't it .. ?

There was a thread on RootsChat about this subject quite a while ago, here is a link explaining it better than I can.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/apr/14/guardianspecial4.guardianspecial24

[daval57]

Thanks Pels,
I recall a similar thread but can't find it.

Your link sums it up tho.

Dave

[Anig]

What a sad photo.    Just goes to prove, I suppose, that not all "Kodak moments" are happy ones...

[willow154]

Hi Everyone,

Not my cup of tea, but obviously it was important to them at that time; when death was sadly a more frequent event in most family's lives:

http://www.deathonline.net/remembering/mourning/victorian.cfm#photos

Paulene

[Sloe Gin]

I've seen similar photos to the one in the link before, but they tend just to look like a child sleeping.  Most if not all of them were probably taken in a studio, but there's still something quite homely about them.  

This one, though, with the whole "dressing up to go the studio" vibe about it .... it seems weirder, though it's hard to say exactly why.

[willow154]

Not sure about this, though
Link deleted - didn't see photographs, and do not want to cause any upset or offence. Aplogies.