Victorian era Death Family Photos

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. Huk-N-Duck
  • Start date Start date
The phrase "give your flowers while they are alive" or "give me flowers while I can still smell them" comes to mind here.

Take your family portrait while everyone is still alive seems like a good rule of thumb.
 
Macabre for sure, but arguably no more so than the earlier practice of making a death mask, for the purpose of using as a model for posthumous art (or as a memento in itself).
 
Ransom said:
Macabre for sure, but arguably no more so than the earlier practice of making a death mask, for the purpose of using as a model for posthumous art (or as a memento in itself).
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death masks were fairly common in the age before photography was perfected - before taking a photgraph became cheap and widespread.... and before mechanical freezers that could preserve dead unidentified bodies came into existence.... ..... if no-one could identify a person found recently deceased a death mask was often made and displayed with other similar unknown dead person masks at a police station... and usually left there until the persons face was identified.....

we have to remember that travel and communication at that time in hiatory was not as easy to do as it is today..... if someone got a letter telling them a loved one might have died... it might take them many weeks to get to where that person lived.... and by that time the dead persons body would have decomposed and been beyond recognizable.... so the death mask was of vital importance.... and a mask could also be reproduced and sent to other places... just like photographs are sent around today...to where people unable to travel could identify it....

and.... on a side note.... if anyone here has ever taken a CPR class where a laerdal CPR manequin was used... then you have not only seen an actual death mask.... but you probably went down mouth to mouth with one.... the calm serene (removable and washable) face, on the rescusi-annie CPR dummy, is a an actual death mask impression taken of a young women found drowned in a paris canal in the mid 1800s... and who was never identified.... the mask remained at the paris police station for decades long after anyone who might have known the woman would have also been dead.. because it appeared so calm and serene and people loved to look at it... ...people would travel for miles just to gaze at it.....

then.... a few decades ago.... when the son of a toymaker name laerdal almost drowned, and his would be "professional" rescuers and lifeguards appeared to be confused and at odds over what to do.... laerdal decided to put his toymaking skills to work to create the modern CPR manequin so people could be taught a correct and standard method of CPR.. .. the original faces on that first set of manequins was pretty hideous.. or else looked too mechanical... ..most people didn;t want to practice rescue breathing on it..... .. ... . but someone familiar with the paris death mask suggested he aquire it and use it instead..... and the rest is history... .. but it;s a very beautiful history.. of how an unknown and unidentified woman that drowned in a paris canal over 150 years ago.. helps save the lives of cardiac arrest victims today... ....
 
aleshanee said:
and.... on a side note.... if anyone here has ever taken a CPR class where a laerdal CPR manequin was used... then you have not only seen an actual death mask.... but you probably went down mouth to mouth with one.... the calm serene (removable and washable) face, on the rescusi-annie CPR dummy, is a an actual death mask impression taken of a young women found drowned in a paris canal in the mid 1800s... and who was never identified.... the mask remained at the paris police station for decades long after anyone who might have known the woman would have also been dead.. because it appeared so calm and serene and people loved to look at it... ...people would travel for miles just to gaze at it.....

then.... a few decades ago.... when the son of a toymaker name laerdal almost drowned, and his would be "professional" rescuers and lifeguards appeared to be confused and at odds over what to do.... laerdal decided to put his toymaking skills to work to create the modern CPR manequin so people could be taught a correct and standard method of CPR.. .. the original faces on that first set of manequins was pretty hideous.. or else looked too mechanical... ..most people didn;t want to practice rescue breathing on it..... .. ... . but someone familiar with the paris death mask suggested he aquire it and use it instead..... and the rest is history... .. but it;s a very beautiful history.. of how an unknown and unidentified woman that drowned in a paris canal over 150 years ago.. helps save the lives of cardiac arrest victims today... ....
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As someone who has been CPR certified multiple times, I find this a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing!
 
Huk said:
As someone who has been CPR certified multiple times, I find this a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing!
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you are welcome... :). ... .that;s where i first heard the story - several years ago in a CPR re-certification class.... ..i looked it up later and read the entire account of it... . pretty amazing....
 
aleshanee said:
and.... on a side note.... if anyone here has ever taken a CPR class where a laerdal CPR manequin was used... then you have not only seen an actual death mask.... but you probably went down mouth to mouth with one....
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That's an interesting bit of history. I got a first-aid certification in April, but they didn't use Laerdal mannequins. Makes me wonder if they're all modeled after actual people, now.
 
Ransom said:
That's an interesting bit of history. I got a first-aid certification in April, but they didn't use Laerdal mannequins. Makes me wonder if they're all modeled after actual people, now.
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they might be.... there are several other companies making cpr mannequins now.... but only laerdal uses that specific face mask of the paris drowning... ...some of the other brands of mannequin are sold by companies that also make ekg machines and are fairly complicated ... i have seen a few of them at the college that has the nursing and emergency medical programs.... . some of those machines even have electronic feedback systems built it to grade how well a student is doing and tell whether their efforts are effective.... they are also much more expensive than the laerdal brand of machines...

there are high tech human similator mannequins now that allow students to peform all kinds of invasive procedures and even similated surgeries that could only be practiced on live people or cadavers before..... very expensive but still cheaper than gaining access to actual cadavers... and less risky than allowing students still in early parts of training to work on actual live patients.... and they can avoid the political drama involved with using euthanized pigs or other animals to practice skills on....
 
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