Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America

Dr. Stanley B. Burns and the Burns Archive played a large role in the rediscovery of the normalcy of postmortem photography. In 1990, the landmark publication, Sleeping Beauty, Memorial in Photography in America, ushered in a new era of appreciation of the importance of these images. Postmortem photography is the taking of a photograph of a deceased loved one, and was a normal part of American and European culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has nothing to do with images of violence, crime, or war. Death, and personally dealing with death, was prevalent throughout the entire world as epidemics would come quickly and kill quickly. Advances in medicine removed unexpected death from everyday life and professionals took over. Commissioned by grieving families, postmortem photographs not only helped in the grieving process, but often represented the only visual remembrance of the deceased and were among a family's most precious possessions. Mourning periods were bas