Abstract

"Displaying Death"

Bahar Tahamtnai, University of Texas, Austin (btahamtani@utexas.edu)

Attitudes toward death in American society have had a complex history. In the 19th century it was a common topic of polite discussion. Death and mourning were a normal part of the public life of most adults, and the introduction of photography made more accessible the notion that one could obtain some visual documentation of their beloved deceased. And then it all changed. From the beginning of the 20th century until the 1970s, death became a forbidden subject among the Americanized middle class, and with it post mortem photographs disappeared from the public sphere. But there has been a revival of the discussion revolving around death,and advances in technology--particularly embalming methods and photography--have resulted in renewed community based documentation and sharing. This paper examines how photography facilitated the memorialization and mourning of death in the 19th century in the United States, and how that has evolved in the 21st century in the form of what has come to be known as the "standing funeral."