Coping With Death

We Used to Photograph the Dead

What a curious Victorian practice reveals about our modern approach to death

Photo: Cody Board /Unsplash

It’s a wistful image. The unknown woman seems pensive, gazing reflectively into the foreground. Her head rests upon lace, possibly her own handiwork, and behind is a shelf of small vials, the homemaker’s apothecary. She is…