School Children and Their Dead Classmate

Vcelik’s New Studio, Northeastern United States

Real Photo Postcard, circa 1910

“Today, children are protected from viewing or actively participating in funerals with the deceased in plain view. In the first decades of the twentieth century, a popular style of postmortem photograph depicted dead school age children with their classmates or social peer groups, such as Boy Scouts. This photograph was made in the real photograph postcard format so that participants could have a copy and perhaps send one to friends.”

From Sleeping Beauty II - Grief, Bereavement and the Family in Memorial Photography by Stanley B. Burns, M.D.