Post-Mortem on Pillow (c. 1855): Art, History and Details

Post-Mortem on Pillow (c. 1855) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Children have always been particularly cherished subjects for photography. Portraits were made to preserve the memory of their stages of growth and, in an age when long-distance travel was rare, to share with faraway relatives. And, for a sadder reason: in 1840 an estimated one-third of children died before age five. Photography offered grieving parents the opportunity to immortalize their children’s features. This tragic genre of photographs, later called “post-mortems,” often depicts the children in fine clothing, laying down with eyes shut, as if merely napping.

Object facts

• Title: Post-Mortem on Pillow
• Date: c. 1855
• Culture: America
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: ambrotype, tinted, sixth plate
• Dimensions: Image: 7 x 8.3 cm (2 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.); Case: 8 x 9.3 cm (3 1/8 x 3 11/16 in.); Matted: 48.3 x 61 cm (19 x 24 in.)
• Collection: PH - American 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2003.294

Collection credit

Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.