Teod | 5 Vintage Post Mortem Photographs And Their Backstories

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, vintage post mortem photography was a popular American and European practice of photographing the recently deceased.

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Maximilian accepted an offer by Napoleon III of France to leave Austria and head to Mexico - once there, he declared himself Emperor of Mexico in 1864, even though Benito Juárez was still the legal president of the country.

In 1866 Maximillian's self-declared empire collapsed after the French armies withdrew from Mexico, and was eventually captured by the Mexican government in 1867.

Insiders bribed the prison guards to allow Maximilian to escape execution. However, he would not go through with the plan because he felt that shaving his beard to avoid recognition would ruin his dignity if he were to be recaptured.

On 19 June 1867, Maximilian along with Generals Miramón and Mejía were executed by a firing squad. Maximilian gave the executioners gold in return for not being shot in the head, so that his mother could see his face.

After his execution, Maximilian's body was embalmed and displayed in Mexico. His body was moved back to Austria in 1868, and his coffin was later taken to Vienna and placed within the Imperial Crypt

John, a self-proclaimed recluse, lived alone on his large property in Hastings for many years. When he died on 17 August 1913, he left behind no known heirs. No will. And a $100,000 fortune.

During court proceedings to determine who would receive John’s money, it was ruled that his body should not be buried, but rather kept in an air- and watertight vault at a local morgue. The Livingstons Funeral Home retrieved John’s body with the instruction that the corpse "be preserved there indefinitely pending positive identification by relatives" - which they did, but they also took the liberty to test a new method of embalming without any consent from the relevant parties. The exact process is unknown, but the result was astonishing, and was considering to be “the most beautiful specimen of embalming that their company has ever created”.

During the search for family members, approximately 150 people came forward, claiming to be distant relatives, and demanded the inheritance. However, the issue was never resolved, and John’s estate ended up being handed over to the town hall.

In February 1916, more than two and a half years after John’s death, he was finally buried. The photo below was taken 5 days before John was finally laid to rest.

Clell Miller (1850-1876) was an outlaw and member of the notorious James-Younger Gang, made famous by Jesse James and Cole Younger.

On September 7, 1876 Clell Miller and fellow gang member Bill Chadwell were shot and killed during a robbery attempt of the First National Bank of Northfield.
During this botched heist every member of the James gang was either killed or captured, except Frank and Jesse James.

"Emil, Mary, and 9-month old Anna Keller.
Mary shot Emil through the heart, mortally wounded Anna, and then committed suicide. - January 25, 1894"

According to some of the sources that I've read, Mary (28) was released from a mental hospital a week before this sad incident took place. Apparently, this Swedish couple had a child several years before, but the baby only lived for a couple of weeks. Mary suffered from depression ever since.
Mary, who suffered from delusions, was mentally unstable at the time of her release, and when things got too much for her, she shot her husband, Emil (30), killed their daughter, before committing suicide.

The family is buried in the same casket in the Fort Hill Cemetery, New York.