A different kind of Postmortem Photograph

As regular readers will know I am a rather obsessive collector of Vintage postmortem photographs of Children. In alot of peoples eyes they are strange items to desire and to spend so much money on, and I can't really explain my love for them, except maybe to speculate that they are some kind of attempt to face my own strong fear of death, which is prehaps the same reason they were originally made.

I feel I should put a warning here that the images futher down the page are very graphic and upsetting

I am interested to a certain extent in all forms of postmortem and mourning imagery, and while browsing recently I came across some particularly intense and strong images of death on a website dedicated to the tragic murder of a mother and her two children.
It was the case of Jeffrey MacDonald who, in 1979 brutally murdered his two daughters and pregnant wife, the details of the case were horrible, and difficult to read.
The crime scene and autopsy photographs of the little girls, however, completely captivated me in a way that only the beautiful victorian photographs have done so before. The death of any child, in any circumstance, anywhere, is a horrible thing that should never happen, but it does happen, every day, in every possible way, and for some reason these images give some kind of comfort at the same time as being horrifying.

It seems wrong to me in a way that I was so captivated by these horrific images, but I was and I think there is an incredible beauty about them, if only to serve as a way to mark an event so horrible most of us couldn't even conceive it, but i'd rather look these things in the eye than pretend they didn't happen.

Jeffrey MacDonald is serving 3 consecutive life sentences

"Suffer little Children to come unto me"

"Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past

all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last"

Drawings from photographs

Something I do alot as I collect my Old photographs is draw from them, I like doing quick pen drawings, not concentrating on perfect likeness, but trying to get across the personality that the photographs have. Trying to focus on creating characters rather than accuracy, which I think is more important for my work, I have a huge stack of these, some I like, some not so much, here are my favourites

Highlights from my Old Photograph collection

I am a collector of Antique and Vintage photographs, I have literally hundreds and hundreds of them, ranging from Victorian to 1950s I mainly focus my collection on Children, but I also have many others, anything that catches my eye really, I thought i'd post here my most prized pictures from my collection, the gems I am so happy to own.

The first picture is a photograph of my Grandfather and his brother dressed for a local fancy dress party, as a clown and a black Minstrel. I adore this picture, the original is very tiny and one of a series including their parents in costume and costumes they wore to other events. As well as my many anonymous pictures, I love having pictures from my family aswell.



This Pair of cabinet Cards are so lovely, I bought them off the internet so I have no idea who they are, or anything about them. To me they appear to be brothers who have been photographed in some epic crochet collers their mother or Grandmother probably lovingly made for them.



This one was bought online from America, I just love the outfit she is wearing and the setting, she seems kind of spooky and strange, I wonder what event she was dressed up for, possibly a bridesmaid.



Here is my Indian boy, A small picture in large frame, which I really like. This little boy was brought back for me from India by a friend who went on holiday there.



This is one of my all time favoutites from my collection, its a Tintype in an amazingly elaborate frame. On the back there is a little information about him, his name is Charles and he is a freed slave, I am so taken with his handsome, jolly face and his wonderful outfit, I found him in an antique shop near Cambridge.



This is my favourite of all the Holy Communion photographs I have, I love her face and her pose, its just a gorgeous photograph, I bought this online from Lisbon.



Another lovley Holy Communion Picture, with a Brother and Sister, I unfortunately can't remember which country this was from, possibly Belgium and it was bought online.



This pictures comes from a Photograph album I bought online from France, its very faded, but I adore it, I love the border and the patterned cloth they are sat on.



This another one from the French Album, a brother and sister, possibly the children of the owners of the album. I love this mainly for their strange clown-like costumes.



Here is another picture of the same girl in the previous photograph, dressed again in her clown style outfit.



This is my first Postmortem photograph, it is particularly sad as she is again the same girl, who appears in the previous two pictures, it is sad to know she didn't make it to adulthood.



My next postmortem photograph shows an unidentified little girl propped on a chair, notice her vacant eyes and dropping jaw, also the cloth behind her on the chair, placed there to soak up any bodily fluids coming out of the dead body. This picture was bought online from America.



This next postmortem picture is one of my best, and one of my most precious photos, its so beautiful, showing the whole coffin surrounded by flowers, again this was bought online from America.





Finally, my absolute favourite picture, which I bought quite recently online from England, although it could possibly be an American image, i'm not sure. This a particularly stunning example of postmortem photography, with the slightly open eyes and sad pose, I like the unusual composition of this picture aswell.

Research Photographs

Harold Ray Featherstone. son of C.R. and L.G. Griffin Featherstone, 1917 - 1919, buried west Union st Cemetery, Athens, Ohio. Found behind the original photograph was the original obituary -
Harold Raymond Featherstone, son of Clyde R. and Leah Griffin Featherstone was born, February 9, 1917 at stewart, Ohio and Died September 16, 1919 at Athens, Ohio. His age was two years, seven months and seven days. As a very young child he had been ill a great deal, but he had completely recovered from his earlier troubles and become quite robust and healthy.

Late on Tuesday afternoon he was accidently drowned by falling into a cistern which had been left partly uncovered unbeknown to his parents.

Although his body was in the water only a short time it was impossible to revive him. It was a terrible shock and irreparable loss to his parents, as he was an only child and will be therefore all the more greatly missed.

He was an attractive little fellow, full of life and energy. He was known by many outside his own family circle and loved by all who knew him. He was a very affectionate, loving little boy and easily won a place in the hearts of all who saw him.

Said Samuel Rogers in one of his writings, "pointing to such, well might Cornelia say. When the rich casket shone in bright array. These are my jewels, well of such as he. When Jesus spake, well might his be, Suffer these little ones o come to me"

We wish to express our sincerest thanks to our many friends for their kindness shown to us during our sad bereavement in the loss of our darling little boy, also the friends who send beautiful floral offerings, Rev. Strecker for his kind words, and mr and mrs Warlburn for their services.
Mr and Mrs C.R. Featherstone


"Another little angel. Before the heavenly throne." Blackstone collection


"suffer little children to come unto me" S.L. Davis collection