Married To Death

Why hello there. If you’ve found yourself here, having woven your way through the eternal labyrinth that is modern day internet, then you must be after some good old timey vibes… and share a love for the macabre. I hope to fill your empty cups, thirsty for knowledge, with tales and facts of death throughout history. As well as some occasional personal ramblings.

Caging The Dead

January 15th, 2023

Contrary to popular belief, cages over graves were not to keep the dead from leaving them, they were to keep people out. And, by people, I mean grave robbers – sometimes going by more alluring titles such as Resurrectionists or Night Doctors.

I have a whole post planned surrounding the vampire craze that swept the nation pre-1900s but to summarise, in the past folk used to be so scared of their loved ones rising from their graves, as ravished blood fiends, that they would go to great lengths to prevent it from happening. Some bodies were dug up and the corpse would have their head chopped off and the whole thing burned, coffins would be nailed shut and rocks would be shoved in mouths – the latter could also be a myth but I have yet to research that far. But for now, let’s assume it’s true.
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Photographing The Dead

January 8th, 2023

Ah, the Victorians. There are plenty of delightfully morbid stories surrounding them, and that’s probably why I find myself so intrigued. Many say that they were obsessed with death but it was more so that death was greater in those times. So, in today’s little dive into the 19th century let’s take a look at ‘post-mortem photography’.

During this time period a lot of folk were dying young and medicines weren’t as advanced as they are today, so a lot of death was down to infections and illnesses. Not to mention the epidemics that swept through the century; diphtheria, typhus, and cholera. But while the people were withering, technology was growing, thriving, and photography was fast advancing and so put the two together and, well, here we are.
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Caging The Dead

Photographing The Dead