# The Victorians were just dying to get their picture taken. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 30, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759 "2013-01-30T01:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/21 "2013-01-30T15:03:46Z")
It’s too bad they couldn’t have spent the money for a family photo before the death of the decedent. StG ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/22 "2013-01-30T15:14:18Z")
The only picture I have of my maternal grandma is after her death. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/23 "2013-01-30T15:27:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Photography of the dead is only one aspect of Victorian response to high child mortality – they had memorial plaques, pictures made of hair of the deceased, memorial urns, songs, and suchlike. Photographs of dead children were just another aspect of this, facilitated by new technology. So you’re saying it was de rigueur? While perhaps not as common today, [propping the dead up in lifelike poses](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26290833/) isn’t completely unknown today. And yes, it does strike me as a little creepy, especially when I look at the incredible sadness on the faces of some of those family members in the daguerreotypes, especially the young siblings. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/24 "2013-01-30T15:56:45Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > S > While perhaps not as common today, [propping the dead up in lifelike poses](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26290833/) isn’t completely unknown today. You had the perfect opportunity to [link to this instead](http://cdn-5.nflximg.com/images/6206/1066206.jpg) and failed. Tsk tsk. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/25 "2013-01-30T16:02:17Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > You had the perfect opportunity to [link to this instead](http://cdn-5.nflximg.com/images/6206/1066206.jpg) and failed. Tsk tsk. There’s also [this one](http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Funeral-home-poses-dead-man-on-motorcycle-for-wake-92359464.html), where the family dressed the dead man up in his motorcycle gear and posed him on his bike for the funeral. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/26 "2013-01-30T16:07:20Z")
Gotcha Ya! ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/27 "2013-01-30T18:16:46Z")
Back from the time when having your photo taken was not an everyday event. More like a once in a lifetime event for most people. Well, almost in the lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/28 "2013-01-30T18:58:43Z")
I’m finding that story and the pictures much more sad than creepy. I can actually see how it could help provide a sense of closure for grieving parents. ---
**Author:** ![Nerdessence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nerdessence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nerdessence)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/29 "2013-01-30T20:45:39Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Milk-sagging udders? Yes, kind of a variant on Patsy Stone’s “bovine udders akimbo” remark on Absolutely Fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/30 "2013-01-31T01:53:19Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > There’s also [this one](http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Funeral-home-poses-dead-man-on-motorcycle-for-wake-92359464.html), where the family dressed the dead man up in his motorcycle gear and posed him on his bike for the funeral. That funeral home made a name for itself doing this sort of thing. The owner of an ambulance company was viewed in the driver’s seat of one of his ambulances. Good times! People flooded the Capitol switchboard demanding how come these things were not illegal. But as long as it all complied with health regulations and did not cause a breach of peace or public morals it’s the family’s call and you could not enforce that the geometry of the wake/viewing had to be a literal _lying_ in state. But we haven’t heard much from them since 2010 so either the novelty wore off or people in that town began instructing their survivors in their wills that it’s bad enough to be dead without being made to look ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/31 "2013-01-31T03:05:46Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > So you’re saying it was de rigueur? I like this.😃 ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/32 "2013-01-31T03:58:15Z")
I grew up just a stone’s throw from [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%22Speedy%22_Atkins). Never saw him myself – never wanted to. I remember when they finally buried him, though. Weirdern’ owl shit. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/33 "2013-01-31T12:54:37Z")
The one where they had the coffin upright did make me laugh because it’s so preposterous. The others just made me sad. We’re so lucky to have tons of photos of our loved ones at celebrations and just doing everyday things. We can look at them at any time and be transported back to that day, when they were alive and happy. I can imagine the anguish of these people, who couldn’t easily afford the luxury of a formal portrait, and who undoubtedly didn’t realize that time was not on their side. And then suddenly they were faced with a horrible urgency. Either photograph their child dead, or bury them and be left with only a memory. I wonder, if I was one of these parents, what I would have chosen. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759/34 "2013-01-31T17:00:38Z")
It will be comedy gold when this thread gets revived in a couple years… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-victorians-were-just-dying-to-get-their-picture-taken/648759.md?page=1)