Memento Mori

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/65/52/1f
/65521f134515c88e7b363ff44247d584.jpg

    It is important to take into consideration that in that era the mortality rate was very high. So Memento Mori was one of the opportunities to have records of them like as they were still in life. Usually the pictures(especially at the beginning of this ritual) the deceased person was posed in an everyday position to try to capture their essence during life. Different objects such as toys for childer, flowers, etc., were included in the pictures as well. Braces would help to position the body and in some cases the subject’s eyes would be fixed open or later drawn onto the prints.
  During Victorian era it was used to remember and keep records of close persons who went to the world beyond. In many cases, poverty stood squarely in the way of obtaining expensive painted portraits capturing loved ones in the prime of their lives, so the cheap photography sessions started to grow in popularity.
    In 1860, Jane Carlyle remark the importance and the thanksgiving to the people who invented this ritual: "Blessed be the inventor of photography! I set him above even the inventor of chloroform! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has cast up in my time or is like to -- this art by which even the poor can possess themselves of tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones."
    Oftenm the double exposure photography was made to create pictures where spirits are present as well. This would show  that the spirit of the dead person continues tu live and is always by the side of their close to them persons.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/27/c5/c7/
27c5c769a28b0fc662bc0fed4dfa53f2.jpg

   The reminding of the death wasn't only the photograph taken of the dead people, but also for example locks of haircuts of the dead were arranged in lockets of different forms. The person who had those lockets could have at least something from the person they've lost, always with them.
    Mourning - became a profession as well. So here are some Mourning traditions from the Victorian era:

•     The coutains were drawn
• Clocks were stopped at the time of death
• Mirrors were covered with crap or veilling to prevent spirit from getting trapped in the looking glass
• Black ribbons were tied on the front doors to alert the passerby that a death occured
• The body was watched all the times until burial
• Relatives would sorround the bed of the dying
• Photographs and death masks were produces of the death
• Houses were filled with mementos

    The trend for mourning photography began to fall out of fashion in the early stages of the 20th century as snapshots became more affordable and commonplace.

LINKS: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/30/memento-mori--victorian-mourning-photography-immortalising-loved-ones-death_n_2580559.html