I have not joined in on this topic until now, but I believe by discussing these issues we get a much broader sense of what we now call injustices, but in Victorian times were accepted practices.
Should we not discuss children been sent up chimneys, or working in the mines crawling along on their hands and knees dragging wagons of coal behind them. Perhaps we should not read Charles Dickens books, because he wrote about things we find abhorrent now.
These things did happen, as did taking photos like the one we are discussing. If we talk about them we learn about our past as many people will have ancestors who had to suffer all this and more. At least one person at the beginning of this thread could not believe that post mortem photos were ever taken, but they were and I have one in my family album to prove it.
I think most people will agree that this particular photo is of siblings one of which is either dead or perhaps disabled. We take photos of disabled people today which we see all the time, but fortunately not too many post mortem photos are taken now. and they would never be publicly shown.
I do think these photos from Victorian times should be discussed, it is all part of our ancestry, part of the way of life as it was then. I wonder what people in one hundred years time will be discussing about our photos?
Just to add, I really think the poor child is deceased.
