Yesterday Today

Pancho Villa Expedition: 25 Rare and Amazing Photos From the 1916 Mexican Border Campaign

At 2:30 on 9 March 1916, several hundred troops under the command of Francisco “Pancho” Villa crossed the border separating the United States and Mexico and attacked the small Army garrison at Columbus, New Mexico. The raid was a surprise to the still sleeping men of the 13th Cavalry, who were responsible for patrolling the border around town.

After about two hours of fighting, and a brief pursuit of Villa’s men into Mexico by Major Frank Tompkins, the attacking bands dispersed into the deserts of Chihuahua. Due to the work of a telegraph agent in town, the public heard about the raid almost as it was happening, and within twenty four hours, President Woodrow Wilson decided to send the U.S. Army into Mexico. Known as the Punitive Expedition and led by Brigadier General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, the goal of the campaign was to capture Pancho Villa and those men responsible for the raid.

The Columbus raid was a minor skirmish in a much bigger conflict. The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 as a revolt to remove Porfirio Díaz, the aging dictator of Mexico, from power, but as revolutionary factions fractured, the war became a large scale political and social revolution that transformed the republic. Villa was the head of one of the most powerful of these factions, but his fortunes declined after breaking from the Constitutionalists, led by General Venustiano Carranza. When Wilson recognized Carranza as the legal president of Mexico in October 1915, Villa became enraged. This resentment boiled over into a series of attacks on U.S. citizens in Mexico by Villa’s forces, culminating in the attack on Columbus.

The Punitive Expedition was comprised of 4,800 men from the 7th, 10th, and 13th Cavalry, 6th Field Artillery, the 6th and 16th Regiments of Infantry, the 1st Aero Squadron, and medical personnel. The 10th Cavalry was an African American regimen. Known as buffalo soldiers, these troops were mostly led by white officers, with the exception of Major Charles Young, who was one of only three African American officers in the U.S. Army. The expedition entered Mexico on 15 March 1916 in two columns, one led by Pershing that crossed the border at Culberson’s Ranch and a second that crossed near Columbus.

Pershing’s column arrived first at Colonía Dublán and then split into three provisional squadrons, all of which went south on different paths to pursue Villa and his forces. One of these provisional squadrons composed of soldiers of the 7th Cavalry and led by Col. George A. Dodd rode to the town of Guerrero on the hunt for Villa. Left without reliable guides, the 7th Cavalry spent the night of 28 to 29 March traveling a circuitous route to the town, arriving at about 0800. Villa had been shot in the leg during a skirmish in Guerrero on 27 March and was taken to a home in the area, where he stayed before leaving in the direction of Minaca at daybreak on 29 March. Dodd skirmished with retreating Villistas, but did not see Pancho Villa himself. The expedition was never closer to capturing Villa.

While the three provisional squadrons pursued Villistas, the column that entered Mexico from Columbus was divided into four “flying columns,” so named because they were small, highly mobile, and expected to provide for themselves materially in the field. As these squads combed Chihuahua, Pershing moved his main base of operations further south to San Geronimo and then to Satevó to be closer to the cavalry. These columns were assisted by the 1st Aero Squadron, which was mostly tasked with delivering messages and doing reconnaissance. This was the first major Army operation in which planes were used in the field, and the expedition revealed serious deficiencies in the eight Curtiss JN-3 biplanes that the squadron brought to Mexico. Besides their inadequate number, the planes had difficulties flying in Chihuahua’s high elevations, heat, wind, and sand. By April, all of the planes had been grounded.

On 12 April, one of these flying columns under the command of Maj. Tompkins, supported on each flank by squadrons riding further north, decided to go to the town of Parral after contracting for supplies and fodder. Upon their arrival, General Ismael Lozano, who was in charge of local Mexican government forces, requested that Tompkins depart, while a mob of civilians formed. Tompkins refused, and asked Lozano to provide him with a spot to camp. On the way to this camp, his squad skirmished with government forces, called Carrancistas, and with civilian members of the mob. This clash precipitated a diplomatic crisis that led Wilson to order Pershing to move his headquarters back north to Colonía Dublán and give up the active pursuit of Villa. Flying columns were replaced by squads that patrolled a grid around Dublán.

Still, small skirmishes between Pershing’s forces, Villistas, and Carrancistas continued even after the end of active pursuit. After another raid north of the border on the tiny settlement of Glen Springs, Wilson ordered the National Guard to mobilize to protect the border. Units from Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico came first, but when their numbers proved small, Wilson ordered the National Guard to send troops from the rest of the nation. Eventually, over 100,000 National Guard spent the next several months training along the border. In Mexico, a patrol squad led by Captain William T. Boyd was ordered to do reconnaissance in the area of Ahumada. On the way there, Boyd insisted on passing through the town of Carrizal even after being denied permission by Carrancistas. This led to a skirmish in which nine troops were killed and twelve were wounded. In addition, twenty three soldiers were taken prisoner.

The fallout from this action led to the establishment of a joint Mexican-U.S. commission to negotiate Pershing’s withdrawal and orders for the expedition to stay in the vicinity of Colonía Dublán. The soldiers of the Punitive Expedition ceased patrolling, but they kept busy until their withdrawal on 5 February 1917 drilling and training. In the end, Pershing did not capture Villa, but he did receive valuable experienced that served him in his role as leader of the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI.

via U.S. Army Center Of Military History

15 Amazing Black and White Photos of Bohemian Life in Paris in 1950

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world’s major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, science, and arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the region and province of Île-de-France, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,174,880 in 2017, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo, and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.

Paris is a major railway, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris–Charles de Gaulle (the second-busiest airport in Europe) and Paris–Orly. Opened in 1900, the city’s subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily; it is the second-busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th-busiest railway station in the world, but the busiest located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre received 2.8 million visitors in 2021, despite the long museum closings caused by the COVID-19 virus. The Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet and Musée de l’Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art. The Pompidou Centre Musée National d’Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. The Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso exhibit the works of two noted Parisians. The historical district along the Seine in the city centre has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991; popular landmarks there include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, now closed for renovation after the 15 April 2019 fire. Other popular tourist sites include the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, also on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the hill of Montmartre with its artistic history and its Basilica of Sacré-Coeur.

Paris received 12.6 million visitors in 2020, measured by hotel stays, a drop of 73 percent from 2019, due to the COVID-19 virus. The number of foreign visitors declined by 80.7 percent. Museums re-opened in 2021, with limitations on the number of visitors at a time and a requirement that visitors wear masks.

The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as the 1960, 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were also held in the city. Every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. (Wikipedia)

Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken was part of the scene in Paris at the time, and in 1956, he published a ground-breaking photobook called Love on the Left Bank. His gritty, sexy, black-and-white photos of bohemian life in Paris captured a reckless, carefree, decadent and hedonistic love for life.

Photos © Ed Van der Elsken

Portraits of Peg Entwistle, the Young Actress Who Committed Suicide by Jumping Off the Hollywood Sign in 1932

“I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.”
In 1932, Peg Entwistle, a New York stage actress, became the symbol of the dark side of the Hollywood dream. Emboldened by her Broadway success, the ambitious young actress soon set her sights on the silver screen. She packed her bags for Hollywood and moved in with her uncle on Beachwood Drive – virtually in the shadow of the Hollywood Sign.

Unfortunately, Peg failed to make a splash, and she spent most of the brutally hot summer of ’32 hanging around her uncle’s house, waiting for a phone call that never came. Finally, on the evening of September 18th, Peg told her uncle that she was going to meet some friends at a nearby drug store, but this was a sad lie.

She instead made the arduous hike up the canyon hill to the Hollywood Sign, her one-time beacon of hope but now a symbol of failure and rejection. She climbed 50 feet up a workman’s ladder to the top of the “H” and plunged to her death. Peg Entwistle – dubbed by tabloids as the “The Hollywood Sign Girl” – was only 24 years old.

According to Hollywood legend, a letter to Peg arrived the day after her death from the Beverly Hills Playhouse. She was offered the lead role in a play… about a woman driven to suicide.

Born in Wales, Millicent Lilian “Peg” Entwistle immigrated to New York City in 1913, where she began a promising career on Broadway. In 1926, she was recruited by the New York Theatre Guild and performed in many Broadway shows, including The Man from Toronto, The Uninvited Guest, and her longest-running and most-remembered performance as Sidney Toler in Tommy. Her performances were positively received, and she remained on tour with the New York Theatre Guild in between Broadway shows.

Despite her career success, she had a troubled home life. She married actor Robert Keith in 1927, but the marriage soon fell apart. She filed for divorce in 1929, citing abuse and domestic cruelty. She also claimed that Keith had secretly been married before and had a six-year-old son she had never been told about.

Then, her Broadway career ended rather abruptly in 1932 when her show Alice Sit-by-the-Fire closed unexpectedly and paid Entwistle far less than she had been promised. Following her initial success on Broadway, she decided to move in with her uncle in Los Angeles and attempt to begin a Hollywood acting career. However, she found only a small supporting role in the film Thirteen Women.

Some people have an idea about Peg Entwistle: She was a small-town girl, a failed actress, both on the New York stage and then in Los Angeles, where she fought to get into the movie business. Her one movie bombed, with Peg singled out for bad reviews, and she was cut from the RKO studio’s list of actresses under contract. Broke, she was forced to pose for photographers nearly naked. Unable to take it anymore, Peg threw herself off the sign that symbolizes the city of dreams, the dreams that rejected her.

30 Vintage Photos of Paul Newman in the 1950s and 1960s

Paul Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an Academy Award winning American actor who was also an accomplished entrepreneur, professional racing driver, activist and philanthropist. Famous for his dashing looks and striking blue eyes, he is regarded as one of the most handsome men ever to have graced Hollywood.

A highly talented actor who won multiple awards for his performances, he was also a successful racing driver with several national championships to his name. The son of a sports store owner, he acquired his penchant for acting from his theater-loving mother. He participated in his school plays though he was more interested in athletics at that time.

As a young man he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Air Corps and served as a radio operator during the World War II. After the war he studied drama and ventured into the Broadway. He got noticed for his good looks and well-built physique which landed him film roles in Hollywood. It did not take him long to establish himself as a successful actor with films like The Hustler and The Color of Money to his credit.

In addition to being an actor, he was also an entrepreneur who co-founded Newman’s Own, a food company, which donates all profits to charity. The legendary actor was also well-known for his involvement in philanthropic endeavors.

In June 2008, it was widely reported in the press that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment for the condition at the Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City. A. E. Hotchner, who partnered in the 1980s with Newman to start Newman’s Own, told the Associated Press in an interview in mid-2008 that Newman had told him about being afflicted with the disease about 18 months prior. Newman’s spokesman told the press that the star was “doing nicely”, but neither confirmed nor denied that he had cancer.

Newman died on the morning of September 26, 2008, in the presence of his family. He was 83 years old. His body was cremated after a private funeral service near his home in Westport.

41 Amazing Photos Showing Life in New York in the Late 1940s

Homer Page (1918-1985) was an American documentary photographer whose most famous photographs were taken in New York City in 1949-1950, after he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Page studied art and social psychology at the University of California, graduating in 1940. He worked in the shipyards in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area during World War II. His neighbor and later his mentor, photographer Dorothea Lange, encouraged him to take up photography in 1944. By 1947, he was featured in a major show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Page received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 and spent a year documenting modern urban culture, primarily by photographing people on the streets of New York City. Most of his subjects appear unaware of his presence.

(Photos by Homer Page)

Rare Photographs Capture the Moment Some of the Nazis’ Most Notorious Murderers Were Brought to Justice, 1945

These rare photos show some of the world’s most infamous monsters just moments after their reign of terror came to an end. The pictures, which form part of a stunning group of previously unseen snaps documenting the Second World War, were found in an old suitcase belonging to a former Spitfire pilot.

Nazi killers Franz Hossler and Irma Grese can be seen relaxing in the black and white photos which have only just been uncovered. In the photos, evil Hossler, who was commander at Auschwitz concentration camp and then deputy commandant of Bergen-Belsen, can be seen smirking.

The mass murderers were caught on camera along with dozens of other defendants at Celle Prison in Germany by Flight Lieutenant Keith Parfitt.

**Pictured on the left is Herta Bothe, alongside two other female prisoners.**

**Herta Bothe can be seen looking stern as she is caught.**

In September 1942, Herta Bothe became the SS-Aufseherin camp guard at the Nazi German Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. The former nurse took a four-week training course and was sent as an overseer to the Stutthof camp near Danzig (now Gdansk). There she became known as the “Sadist of Stutthof” due to her brutal beatings of prisoners.[citation needed]

In July 1944, she was sent by Oberaufseherin Gerda Steinhoff to the Bromberg-Ost (Bromberg East) subcamp.[1]

On 21 January 1945, the 24-year-old Bothe accompanied a death march of women prisoners from central Poland to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Celle. While en route to Bergen-Belsen, she and the prisoners stayed temporarily at Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving at Belsen between 20–26 February 1945.[1]

Guard at Bergen-Belsen

19 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen SS women camp guards are paraded for work in clearing the dead. The women include Hildegard Kanbach (first from left), Magdalene Kessel (second from left), Irene Haschke (centre, third from right), the Head Wardress, Herta Ehlert (second from right, partially hidden) and Herta Bothe (first from right). Herta Bothe (also known as Hertha Bothe) accompanied a death march of women from central Poland to Bergen-Belsen. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and released early from prison on 22 December 1951. Elisabeth Volkenrath was head wardress of the camp and sentenced to death. She was hanged on 13 December 1945. Irene Haschke was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Once in the camp Bothe supervised a group of sixty women prisoners. The camp was liberated on 15 April 1945.

She is said to have been the tallest woman arrested; she was 6′ 3″ (1.91 m) in height. Bothe also stood out from other Aufseherinnen because, while most of the SS women wore black jackboots, she was in ordinary civilian shoes. The Allied soldiers forced her to place corpses of dead prisoners into mass graves adjacent to the main camp. She recalled in an interview some sixty years later that, while carrying the corpses, they were not allowed to wear gloves, and she was terrified of contracting typhus. She said the dead bodies were so rotten that the arms and legs tore away when they were moved. She also recalled the emaciated bodies were still heavy enough to cause her considerable back pain. Bothe was arrested and taken to a prison at Celle.

At the Belsen Trial she was characterized as a “ruthless overseer” and sentenced to ten years in prison for using a pistol on prisoners. Bothe admitted to striking inmates with her hands for camp violations like stealing but maintained that she never beat anyone “with a stick or a rod” and added that she never “killed anyone.” Her contention of innocence was deemed questionable as one Bergen-Belsen survivor claimed to have witnessed Bothe beat a Hungarian Jew named Éva to death with a wooden block while another teenager stated that he saw her shoot two prisoners for reasons he could not understand. Nevertheless, she was released early from prison on 22 December 1951 as an act of leniency by the British government. (Wikipedia)

**Franz Hossler (far right), was a feared concentration camp commander.**

Franz Hößler, also Franz Hössler; 4 February 1906 – 13 December 1945) was a Nazi German SS-Obersturmführer and Schutzhaftlagerführer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dora-Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during World War II. Captured by the Allies at the end of the war, Hößler was charged with crimes against humanity in the First Bergen-Belsen Trial, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at Hameln Prison in 1945.

**Bothe (left) was a Nazi concentration camp guard imprisoned for war crimes but eventually released.**

**A group of young women sit outside the jail where 45 people faced charges for war crimes in 1945.**

**Detained alongside Hossler and Grese, they were among dozens to be arrested at the site towards the end of the Second World War.**

**A group of unidentified prisoners are lined up against a wall during their detainment at Celle Prison, in Germany.**

**A group of men are marched out of the jail cells before two rows of Allied soldiers acting as prison guards.**

**More than a dozen women, suspected of being complicit in war crimes, are displayed before a gathered crowd.**

**A woman is marched before gathered crowds during the war crimes trial held after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen death camp.**

**The unidentified prisoner was arrested after the liberation of Burgen-Belsen death camp.**

**Pictured is an unidentified prisoner.**

1938 Police Shootout in Los Angeles

**Feb. 17, 1938: Tear gas issues from a home in the 1700 block of East 22nd Street as police trade shots with barricaded suspect George Farley. (J.H. McCrory / Los Angeles Times Archive/UCLA)**

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The bodies of a deputy city marshal and his helper — shot and killed by George Farley as they tried to serve an eviction notice on him — lie in front of a barricaded home. They were Deputy Marshal T. Dwight Crittenden and Leon W. Romer, both 60.

Farley, 55, was wounded five times and captured after police stormed the house. He was later convicted of two counts of manslaughter and ordered to serve 10 to 20 years in San Quentin State Prison.

Earliest Portrait Photos Ever Taken Bring Americans From the 1840s to Life After Being Colorized

These amazing photographs were all taken in the 1840s using the daguerreotype which had just been invented. Images show various people from 1840s New York and bring to life how people looked and dressed in that era. They believed to have been taken by legendary early American photographer Matthew Brady, show a selection of 11 portraits taken as daguerreotype images.

Images: My Colorful Past

25 Amazing Photos Showing Life in Portugal During the Late 1960s and Early 1970s

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. It features the westernmost point in mainland Europe, and its Iberian portion is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, the sole country to have a land border with Portugal. Its two archipelagos form two autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The official and national language is Portuguese. Lisbon is the capital and largest city.

Portugal is the oldest continuously existing nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. It was inhabited by pre-Celtic and Celtic peoples, visited by Phoenicians-Carthaginians, Ancient Greeks and ruled by the Romans, who were followed by the invasions of the Suebi and Visigothic Germanic peoples. After the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors, most of its territory was part of Al-Andalus. Portugal as a country was established during the early Christian Reconquista. Founded in 868, the County of Portugal gained prominence after the Battle of São Mamede (1128). The Kingdom of Portugal was later proclaimed following the Battle of Ourique (1139), and independence from León was recognized by the Treaty of Zamora (1143).

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global maritime and commercial empire, becoming one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. During this period, today referred to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration with the discovery of what would become Brazil (1500). During this time Portugal monopolized the spice trade, divided the world into hemispheres of dominion with Castile, and the empire expanded with military campaigns in Asia. However, events such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the country’s occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of Brazil (1822) erased to a great extent Portugal’s prior opulence. A civil war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists in Portugal over royal succession lasted from 1828 to 1834.

After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, later being superseded by the Estado Novo authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Carnation Revolution (1974), ending the Portuguese Colonial War. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories. The handover of Macau to China (1999) marked the end of what can be considered one of the longest-lived colonial empires in history.

Portugal has left a profound cultural, architectural and linguistic influence across the globe, with a legacy of around 250 million Portuguese speakers, and many Portuguese-based creoles. It is a developed country with an advanced economy and high living standards. Additionally, it ranks highly in peacefulness, democracy, press freedom, stability, social progress, prosperity and English proficiency. A member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area and the Council of Europe (CoE), Portugal was also one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. (Wikipedia)

Neal Slavin is a world-class photographer and film director. His well- known photographic books include PORTUGAL with an Afterword by Mary McCarthy, WHEN TWO OR MORE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER and BRITONS.

He has photographed for most of the major magazines around the world including The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Esquire, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Life, Geo, and New York Magazine to name just a few.

Slavin’s work encompasses a professional career of over 40 years, during which he has photographed a myriad of subjects including such celebrities as Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Barbra Streisand and Phil Collins, among others. He has also pursued his own art which has led to the publication of the three aforementioned books.

These 25 impressive black and white photographs play with shadows and contrast of Portugal taken by Slavin during the late 1960s and early ’70s.

10 Sad and Strange Facts About Victorian Post-Mortem Photography

The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 made portraiture much more commonplace, as many of those who were unable to afford the commission of a painted portrait could afford to sit for a photography session. This cheaper and quicker method also provided the middle class with a means for memorializing dead loved ones.

Post-mortem photography was very common in the nineteenth century when “death occurred in the home and was quite an ordinary part of life.” As photography was a new medium, it is plausible that “many daguerreotype post-mortem portraits, especially those of infants and young children, were probably the only photographs ever made of the sitters.

These photographs served as keepsakes to remember the deceased. The later invention of the carte de visite, which allowed multiple prints to be made from a single negative, meant that copies of the image could be mailed to relatives. Approaching the 20th century, cameras became more accessible and more people began to be able to take photographs for themselves.

People Would Have Photos Taken of Their Loved Ones in Caskets

The earliest Victorian death photos were simple: the dead person was photographed in a casket, usually in the parlor of their home before loved ones came to pay their respects. These were a simple way of remembering the deceased, and served as a form of memento mori, a popular Latin phrase of the time that translates to “remember that you will die.”

Mothers Would Hide Behind a Sheet While Holding Their Deceased Children

These photos, called “hidden mother” pictures, were taken because the mother didn’t want to be seen. So she simply hid behind a sheet and held the baby in her arms. (In some cases, the baby photographed isn’t dead, the mother is simply there to hold him or her still, so researchers often have a hard time determining which of these photos feature deceased babies.)

Artists Would Paint Open Eyeballs on the Dead’s Eyelids

Later in the Victorian period, photography advanced to the point where simple, Photoshop-like touches were possible. After the picture was developed, things like rosy cheeks could be painted on to make the deceased look more lifelike. Open eyes were painted onto the photo negative to further disguise the dead as the living.

Stands Sometimes Held Up the Bodies of the Deceased

In order to make the deceased look so full of life that he or she was standing, special stands were used. These stands would be disguised by curtains and by the body of the deceased person itself. In this case, you can see the base of the stand behind the boy’s feet, and someone or something is holding his head straight from behind the curtain.

Parents Would Pose Alongside Their Dead Children

Childhoood death rates during the Victorian era were very high, thanks to diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis. Many children did not make it to the age of three. Sadly, the only photo taken of an entire family might be one with the youngest in a coffin.

Brothers and Sisters Would Pose Alongside Their Deceased Siblings

In some cases, living siblings would be made to pose alongside their recently deceased brothers and sisters. This particular picture has three living brothers and one sister lined up, with their dead sister on the very left. This type of family portrait would be displayed in the parlor of the home, so that everyone would remember the deceased youngest.

Props Were Used to Help Remember the Dead

During the later part of the Victorian period, the deceased were posed with some of their favorite items. Young girls were photographed alongside dolls, while adults were posed with other things, like books, letters, or flowers. This was done to help the living remember their dead loved ones and their personality, profession, or hobbies.

Photos of Deceased Infants Were Unfortunately Popular

The mortality rate for infants was extremely high during the Victorian period due to the lack of penicillin and vaccinations. Because of this, there are a lot of surviving post mortem photographs of deceased infants. These pictures helped the parents of these children remember their very short lives.

A Living Spouse Posed Alongside an Expired One

For married couples who couldn’t afford standard family photographs, pictures were usually taken on two different occasions: the day of their wedding, and the day that one of them died. The latter pictures were taken to prove how devoted the surviving spouse was to the deceased.

Some Photos Were Taken With More Than One Deceased Person in Them

Some post-mortem photos had multiple generations of deceased people in them. This photo, of a father and child, is a good example of that. Even though the man looks alive, the stiffness of his hands and the blank look on his face make it obvious that he is not.

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