1164
See also: Collotype; Frith, Francis; Valentine, James
and Sons; Eastman, George; and Kodak.
Further Reading
Burdick, J.R. (ed.), Pioneer Postcards, Syracuse, N.Y.: Voss
Litho, 1957.
Carline, Richard, Pictures in the Post: The Story of the Picture
Postcard. Bedford, England: Gordon Fraser, 1959.
McCulloch, Thomas R., Card Photographs: A Guide to their
History and Value. Exton, Pa.: Schiffer Pub., 1981.
Miller, George, and Dorothy Miller, Picture Postcards in the
United States, 1893–1918. New York: C.N. Potter: Distributed
by Crown, 1976.
Morgan, Hal, and Andreas Brown (foreword by John Baskin),
Prairie Fires and Paper Moons: The American Photographic
Postcard, 1900–1920, Boston: D.R. Godine, 1981.
Phillips, Tom, The Postcard Century: 2000 Cards and Their
Messages, London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Postcard Collector, Iola, WI: Krause Publications. Nov. 1983
(Continues: American Postcard Journal, and Post Card
Collector’s Bulletin).
Staff, Frank, The Picture Postcard and its Origins. New York:
Fredrick A. Praeger, 1979.
Walter, Karin, Postkarte und Fotografi e: Studien zur Massenbild-
Produktion, Würzburg: Bayerische Blätter für Volkskunde;
München: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1995.
POSTMORTEM PHOTOGRAPHY
Postmortem photography has its roots in a long tradi-
tion of posthumous memorial and funerary portraiture.
These costly portraits were mainly of wealthy persons
or well-known fi gures who were usually depicted as if
still living. Visual clues within the painting signaled
that it was a post mortem portrait. These portraits were
intended to create the illusion of life in death. Although
usually for the private consumption of the family of
the deceased, they sometimes had a more public, com-
memorative purpose.
The fi rst postmortem daguerreotypes were made
in 1841, only two years after the daguerreotype was
introduced. For the fi rst time, photography made post-
mortem portraits relatively accessible for all who wanted
them. At the apex of the Victorian obsession with death,
postmortem photographs became a popular accoutre-
ment of the rituals of death and mourning. The realm
of posthumous portraiture shifted from a strictly upper
class practice to a middle and lower class one. By 1850
almost any family that desired an image of their dearly
departed could afford the cost of approximately 25 cents
for a daguerreotype.
This phenomenon is another instance of how early
photography was quickly put into the service of an ex-
isting or perceived daily need. By the mid-nineteenth
century the preoccupation with death had taken a fi rm
hold on both sides of the Atlantic. Death was seen as
the ultimate act of nature, in both romantic and realistic
terms. Due to the high mortality rates of the nineteenth
century, especially among infants and children, death
was perceived as God’s will, beyond all human control.
Ever-present and inevitable, death was an accepted
familiar. Because death usually occurred at home, the
experience of death was shared by all family members,
as a event to be recorded and remembered. The death of
a loved one signaled the completion of relationships, the
closing of the circles of family and life. In some sense,
the visual manifestations of mourning, and perhaps
postmortem photographs most of all, were the links that
served as both the aperture and closure of the circle.
Postmortem photography served several purposes. It
was a way to console the bereaved, to share the image
and details of the death of a loved one with those who
had not been there, and to memorialize the deceased.
A photograph created a tangible object that represented
the deceased. This became especially important when
the posthumous image was the only existing likeness of
the individual. Postmortem photographs were kept on
parlor tables and mantels and in family albums. They
were also sent to far away relatives along with written
accounts of the death. In all aspects postmortem photo-
graphs were literally “memento mori.” Elizabeth Barrett
wrote of a postmortem daguerreotype in her possession,
“It is not merely the likeness which is precious—but the
association and the sense of nearness involved in the
thing...the fact of the very shadow of the person lying
there forever!...I would rather have such a memorial
of one I dearly loved, than the noblest artist’s work
ever produced” (Gernsheim and Gernshiem, History of
Photography, 64).
Early on some miniaturists and other artists turned
to photography, recognizing it as both a faster way
to record the deceased and as a way to increase their
business. Conventions from the posthumous painting
tradition such as the inclusion of watches and clocks
or bottles of medicine are often found in early photo-
graphs. Photographers did not hesitate to advertise their
services. “Secure the shadow ‘ere the substance fade”
was a popular early advertising slogan for daguerreo-
typists. In an era when photographic portraiture was
still not considered a matter of course and many of the
living had never had a photographic portrait taken, it
called out to the increased importance being placed on
portraiture, whether living or posthumous, as a method
of remembrance. Nathan Burgess concluded his 1855
article “Taking portraits after death” with these words:
“How true it is, that it is too late to catch the living form
and face of our dear friends and will illustrate the neces-
sity of procuring those more than life-like remembrances
of our friends, ere it is too late—ere the hand of death
has snatched away those we prize so dearly on earth”
(The Photographic and Fine Art Journal, 8:80). This
practicality of this statement lies in the fact that before