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High rates of mortality, especially among children and women of childbearing age, necessitated frequent demand for the postmortem. Daguerreian photographers often specialized in this enterprise and competed in their ability to make the dead appear to be asleep.
HALF PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE. Postmortem of an elderly man. Artist unknown c1851.


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 This image of a dead man is a creatively taken photograph. Through expert use of depth of field, the daguerreotypist seemed to capture the subject peacefully asleep in the middle of a room. The bureau appears to be about six feet behind the subject. Actually, one bureau knob in focus reveals the rocking chair propped directly against the bureau and the subject's head propped with a pillow.
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This daguerreotype is unusual. As postmortem, it portrays a starkly realistic style utilized in many such images. The photographer recorded this officer laid out without apology or attempt to beautify or soften the moment. It remains a vivid, visual jolt from the grim reaper who will harvest us all.

As a postmortem of a uniformed American officer, this daguerreotype is quite uncommon.
SIXTH PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE. Postmortem of a Mexican War era Naval Midshipman in uniform.
Artist unknown. Case maker--Montgomery P. Simons of Philadelphia. c1846-48.


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