Series XVI. Photography, circa 1880s-1945, circa 1880s-1945

World War II Ephemera (various formats)

Postmortem Photography: More than any other form of pictorial representation, photography is inextricably tied to remembrance and its invention forever changed the way we relate with and document our world. Following closely on the heels of photography's introduction was the practice of postmortem photography, which, after 1841, spread across America becoming prevalent in both urban and rural areas, and remained culturally embraced well into the early 20th century. From 1840-1880, the majority of postmortem images were taken within the private home, where the body was posed naturalistically. While sometimes depicted as if alive and awake, very often the deceased were shown as if to be sleeping peacefully rather than dead, an illusion that gently denies death, while at the same time serving to beautify, soften, and romanticize it. By the latter 19th century, with the rise of the funeral and embalming industries, straightforward full length "casket photographs" became very popular, focusing less on the individual, and more on the social aspect of the funeral event or funeral parlor setting (where the corpse was often upstaged by profuse floral arrangements).

Today these images serve as culturally bound artifacts that provide a trace of the sociocultural importance that such image making had for their producers and users. Photographs of a deceased loved one functioned as icons, substitutes, and reminders of loss. Most importantly, they captured memory by recording for posterity a lasting image of the deceased.

Salamagundi Club, NYC, May 5, 1945: Mounted black and white photograph of the 75th Anniversary Special Exhibition Dinner of the Salamagundi Club, which includes 55 well-known New York artists and their works hanging on the background walls. The Salamagundi Club (also known as the Salamagundi Art Club) was founded in 1871 and still remains active today with (as of 2009) over 800 members.

Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, NYC, 1903: Embossed, mounted black and white photograph of the Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, showing a multitude of vendors, wagons, goods, and commercial oyster bars.