Spine-tingling photos of dead children from the 19th century reveal the spooky way they were remembered

A GALLERY of haunting photographs show how Victorian families often posed for snaps with their deceased children.

The eerie pictures reveal how people in the 19th century honoured their dead loved ones – and they're pretty unsettling by today’s standards.

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In one of the photos, a Victorian mother looks miserable, staring down the camera as she poses with her child.

But her sad expression becomes understandable once viewers realise she is posing for a macabre shot with her dead daughter, who appears to be sitting peacefully on her lap.

The remarkable photographs, from The Thanatos Archive, show the morbid way that the dead were remembered in the late 19th century.

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Photographers would try to make the dead subjects appear alive in the images so that the posed photographs could serve as mementos for the deceased’s loved ones.

The invention of the daguerreotype - the earliest photographic process - in 1839 brought portraiture to the masses.

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It was far cheaper and quicker than commissioning a painted portrait and it enabled the middle classes to have an affordable, cherished keepsake to remember their dead family members by.

Known as post-mortem photography, some of the dearly departed were even photographed in their coffin.

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However, in other images from the Thanatos archive, the corpses were made to look like as if they were in a deep sleep or in some cases as if they were alive - positioned next to family members, laying wide-eyed on a couch or reclining in a rocking chair.

The photographs were taken in an age where infant mortality rates were high.

Children were often shown in repose on a couch, or in a crib, while adults were more commonly posed in chairs.

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Often, the subject's eyes were propped open or the pupils were painted onto the print to give the impression that they were still alive.

In early images, a rosy tint was even added to the cheeks of the corpses.

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However, by the early 20th century, the practice fell out of fashion as photos became more commonplace with the arrival of the snapshot.

What do you think of these historic shots?

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