The invention of photography in the first half of the 19th century had a powerful impact on the Victorian Era. I briefly describe early photographic processes (especially the daguerreotype), explain how and why postmortem photography became a common Victorian-Era practice, and look at some recent controversy surrounding it.
*****
References
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Outline and Shadow.” https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/arts-letters/outline-and-shadow
Carlton, Genevieve. “27 Victorian Death Photos — And The Disturbing History Behind Them.” https://allthatsinteresting.com/victorian-death-photos
DeVelvis, Melissa. “Death, Immortalized: Victorian Post-Mortem Photography.” https://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/post-mortem-photography/
Heichelbech, Rose. “The Truth about Victorian Post-Mortem Photographs.” https://liveplayeat.com/victorian-post-mortem-photographs/
Sontag, Susan, quoted by Leslie Camhi. “Memento Mori.” https://www.villagevoice.com/2006/06/13/memento-mori/
Sussex Photo History. “The Daguerreotype Process.” http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/dagprocess.htm
Vatomsky, Sonya. “Clearing Up Some Myths About Victorian ‘Postmortem’ Photographs.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-post-mortem-photographs
West, Nancy. “Pictures of Death.” https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/07/pictures-of-death/534060/
*****
Email: thevictorianvarietyshow@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/victorianvarie1
Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/marisadf13
I’d greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate this podcast on Spotify, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, as that will help this podcast reach more listeners!
Also, I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Jason and Lisa of the Designated Quizzers podcast for all of their support of this show! You can check out their latest episode here (or wherever you listen!): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/designated-quizzers-podcast/id1598591568?i=1000547098163
