Foot of the Coffin

And this casket style is called: 'The Eternally Yours' model.

It's actually a Grecian Urn Casket with a full couch lid.

The newer models aren't anywhere as neat as the older ones. :-(
http://morningsidefunerals.com.au/images/caskets/pages/grecian_urn.htm

Just thinking about makes me wonder how the lives of these people in the aslyum were!

What ever the modle, it gives me the creeps that its in a hospital....

Words cannot describe how eerie this is. If I came across this, I would probably be frozen in fear for a few moments, and then I would run like hell.

God, Motts, what is your fixation on coffins?

Twug.....

Don't you find it a little ODD that a Mental Hospital would come equipped with coffins? I can't speak for Motts... but I think perhaps the object here was the oddity of it all (along with the fact that they made interesting shots.... Don't ya think?).

you know what what is wrong with some people,thease people were treated like demens and were expermented on like mice how would you like it.

Sorry - could you give us more details? Are you speaking of this place in particular or of all mental facilities in the US?

I definitely had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach while looking at these caskets. I think I know why (other than thinking about death not exactly being a pleasant past time)...my grandmother had an album of photos that had belonged to her family when she was young...several of the photos were pictures of some of her siblings who had died as children (why on earth they wanted to remember them in their coffins is beyond my comprehension.). Anyway, to make a long story short, the coffins in these pics and the coffins in my grandmother's family album photos are almost identical...of course on a smaller scale for children. As a child I had a morbid fascination with these photos...they scared me to death but I always looked at them every time I went to visit her.

Okay, that's my weird story for the day...Motts, thank you for this amazing website!

looking at this picture makes my stomach turn to lead, more than the others yet i have no idea why.

Rachel- It is totally natural to be more creeped out by the image of an empty casket. It brings mortality into sharp contrast.
It also, makes one realize that someone, somewhere in a building wrought with inhumanities, that someone really tried to give them something decent at the end.
We all have to remember that not everyone who worked in these facilities then were bad, horrible and cruel people. Sadly, it's the bad stories we remember because they are so prevalent.

And 50 points to Lyric or a cumezekyama, whichever she prefers! :-)

How about 50 points, a cumezekyama, AND a nice tall, cold drink!
**Captains, maybe?.....** *hint*...

How about the 50 points, the cumezekyamam and a Maker's Mark and Ginger Ale, double in a tall glass?
Or am I pushin it?

i think that these coffins were for the patients but what was the budget for these to buy, was there staff that lived on site as well. seems weird to have these here, what was the rest of the hospital like doesn't seem as though the place was cleaned out when closed down.

There was a time when casket companies would sell in bulk to institutions, especially when they had a morgue and someone who would embalm the dead.
Some of these hospitials also served as poor houses and many (like one I grew up near) had fully functioning gardens, greenhouses, power plants and dairies/slaughter houses. They were fully functioning cities within a comunity.
Some institutes did provide housing forcare staff and doctors who lived on site.
It was also not uncommon to find that there were also cemetaries or crematoriums not far so that they could bury the patients and poor in a respectful manner.
.

About 30 years ago, I was digging up an old dump and found several empty bottles of 'Dodge Embalming Fluid'. I'm sure I brought one home for safe-keeping. (LOL)

Jprichard, I think this photography of the dead is called, "memento mori", and was common long ago. They even positioned the dead in lifelike poses, using braces much like people use to display dolls. It is said that often these photos were the only ones ever taken of the deceased child. Quite disturbing and fascinating, I agree

it looks like someone or something is under it

To those who are freaked out by the empty casket:
Would you rather be looking at an occupied one? I've seen way too many of both, adn I prefer an empty one over a full one any day...

LOOKS LIKE THIER DRIVING THE OTHER S
OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

Hi Absynthe, I think I have heard a bit about "memento mori"...thank you for mentioning that. Since my grandmother's family was relatively poor I imagine these may well have been the only photos they had of the children who died...it's so sad!

Just the right age, the right deterioration, the proper theme. A damned good shot.
Captured it.

I would like to see a pic of me laying in that. Like I had been in it for years. Maybe be made up to look long gone. ;)

While historically feasible that these were purchased by the institution for our assumed use of disposing of unclaimed corpses, I can not help but get a nagging feeling of doubt. Creepy building, darkness, COFFINS! The equation just seems too good, in a morbid way, to be true. Any possibility these were brought in after the facility closed as props? I know quite a few hospitals that doubled as haunted house attractions in their abandoned years. Likewise, I know quite a few people who stumbled across too good to be true finds in places such as this only to find out that they were props brought in to film some obscure horror film that only about 10 people, 9 of which where probably family of the director, ever bothered to watch. The strangest incident of this would have to be a hospital somewhere where all this strange medical equipment was discovered by an urbex group. They were thrilled about the "time capsule" nature of the place until it was uncovered that it was all brought in as props to film some strange soft-core lesbian porn/ horror movie. It seems that nothing was too strange for the horror movie industry of the 70's and 80's.

For some reason, years ago people DID take pictures of the deceased in coffins. One of my neighbors had her mother's picture hanging in her living room with her mother laying in a casket. Why, on earth would you want to remember someone like that and look at it everyday?

Post death photography was most popular during the Victorian era. It was one of the ways that some families said good bye to their loved ones, and for some poorer families it was the only portrait ever taken of their loved ones. While it was more popular to take the picture while the deceased was laying in state, it's not uncommon to find one from time to time where they tried to make the person look alive by propping them up and posing the body.

http://ame2.asu.edu/pr...20the%20dead/131.jpg

Look at the above picture and read the comments around it. It says that the picture was taken 9 days after death, and that her mother couldn't part with her only daughter. Oh... keep in mind that this was well before modern refrigeration.

CAS, that picture is amazing it looks like she is really sitting there posing for a pic. my grandmaother had some pictures like that and I have found some in anitque stores, but husband will not let me get them, especially when I say " oh look a post mortum shot"

CAS, that photo is absolutely amazing. I have seen many a Victorian portrait taken after death, but I have to admit I've never seen anyone looking that "lifelike," ESPECIALLY given that it was taken 9 days after her death!

2 months ago I purchased an excellent book called, "Wisconsin Death Trip" by Michael Lesy & Charles Van Schaick. They compile some fascinating photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 in Black River Falls, Wisconsin and intersperse them with clippings from state newspapers and admissions files from a state psychiatric facility. Very weird but very enlightening. When people act like life was fun and easy back in the "good old days," it quickly becomes obvious they weren't actually there at the time or they wouldn't describe it as having been that much fun.

absolutely fascinating.

Lynne- There is also a documentary based on "Wisconsin Death Trip", with the same title. It's worth seeing.

I forgot to mention that there are several scenes in "The Others" (a fantastic movie) about post-death photography.

I purchased "Wisconsin Death Trip" several years ago. No, it wasn't much fun in those days. So many babies (and mothers) died in childbirth or at a very young age. The pictures of the deceased children are the most heartbreaking. But it was "the thing to do" back then having pictures taken of your deceased loved ones!

The book is absolutely worth a "look see."

I thought your pupils became opaque when you die. I know that my dogs did rather quickly when she suddenly died. That womans eyes look normal when I enlarged the picture. I inherited some pictures of relatives of my father from Hungary and one of them is a man in a coffin. It's very weird and creepy.

bsmarcia -- my mother's parents were from Budapest. My Hungarian grandmother loved to tell me stories of when she was a little girl -- she said they absolutely put garlic on the front door of the home to ward off vampires!! Of course, she probably had too much goulash - but I believed her!!

<3chu.

Lets hope there wasn't something in there!

For pjrichard and absynthe,
Those post mortem photos was a thing in the Victorian Era. It wasn't a morbid thing then since the Civil War, diseases, and high mortality was frequent and Death was very much a part of life. 3 out of 5 children wouldn't live to see their seventh birthday in most common families. That is why most families were large, the value of life wasn't as we see it today. Post mortem photography was a way to hold on to a loved one, especially small children. www.anamorfose.be/postmortem.htm
This sight has examples, but I didn't partake in looking on this sight. I don't have the strong emotion enough to look. But an interesting fact is that most of the people wore black because of it, that tells me it is the origins of Goth. Since Goth means Gothic, or Victorian Gothic.

i see a big lump under the covers....

I think the lump everyone sees is the bunched up straw bedding under the fabric.

Abandoned coffins.......definitely not something most of us have ever seen. Your site never fails to hold my attention with its great shots and information. Thanks!

People should let sleeping coffins lie -

http://thanatos.net/

A really good site for Momento Mori, though I think it's gone pay now.

i love this site!! keep up the good work.

if you like the scary stuff you would like this tv show supernatural.

Ugh! I HATE the new ones!!! Lynne, I almost hate you for that link! Almost. It's...there...gross....I building my own casket!!!!!!!!

they're weren't people in there, were there?? eek.

The darkest ,deepest , most personal room yes, but why no cobwebs ? are the spiders creeped out ........