Creepy victorian photos

Julia Stilley Lynn standing, and sister Hannah Stilley Willard. Mannsville, Oklahoma. Daughters of Alfred & Nancy Ann Stilley.

Taking photographs of dead family members became popular in the 19th century, and appealed to those who wanted a memento of their relative (typically a child). It was not considered macabre, but faded from popularity probably after widespread use of affordable cameras allowed people to have photographs taken during life to serve the same purpose. "As the common practice of post-mortem photography in North America and Western Europe has largely ceased, the portrayal of such images has become…

Tales of headless ghosts or headless horsemen that haunted the night—most famously described in Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”—and the horrors of the guillotine were a source of inspiration for these gruesomely comic portraits from the 1800s to early 1900s. These portraits show a flipside to the orthodox notions of Victorians as no nonsense, straight-backed, straight-laced individuals, who would no more crack a smile than waste a nickel. It also shows how…

An early reference to wearing costumes at Halloween comes from Scotland in 1585, but they may pre-date this

This is a digital download of three Victorian witches. You can use this image as you wish for either your Halloween projects or frame it to add something unique to your Halloween decor! Great wall or mantle art! This listing is an INSTANT DOWNLOAD and not for the actual paper product. Once your payment is processed, you will be able to access your digital downloads as soon as you complete your order. Simply go to "purchases and reviews" in your Etsy account and click on the "download files"…

This is a digital download of a spooky Victorian family portrait that I created using a skull photograph and a vintage family portrait. Once your payment is received, you will receive a link to download three versions of this image - one that will print as a 5x7, one as an 8x10, and the other as an 11x14. You can use these images as you wish for either your Halloween projects or frame them to add something unique to your Halloween decor! Great wall or mantle art! This listing is an INSTANT…

Every year on October 31st, people all over America dress up in scary costumes, throw crazy parties, or take their kids trick or treating around the

Whenever a relative died when I was a child, we would gather around their body, sometimes laid out on a table, a coffin or slowly cooling under the bed sheets, and say five decades of the rosary for the repose of their soul. I attended at least half a dozen funerals before I was twelve: my father’s side of the family were descended from fertile Irish-Scottish Catholics. The dead always looked more peaceful before they were wheeled off to a funeral home, where make-up was applied, cheeks…

G. W. Wilson, Queen Victoria, 1863. - "Queen Victoria, entirely unesthetic..." (Virginia Woolf). (p. 92).