American Family Memorial Imagery, the Photograph, and the Search for Immortality

Author

Daniel Gyger Snyder

Publication Date

Spring 5-18-1971

Abstract

In this dissertation I trace the development of family (as opposed to public) memorial imagery and note the unique contribution of photography. I examine attitudes toward photography during its early years. These attitudes reveal that the medium was uniquely appropriate for the continuation and extension of the tradition of memorial imagery in America.

I suggest that America holds expectations for the Machine and for the power of Science that have at various times (the mid-nineteenth century and today) led some to assume that death is not inevitable and that physical Immortality is possible. From Puritan times, when death was accepted, to the present, when death is denied, I examine the changing attitudes toward death as evidenced in personal family memorial imagery.

Among the kinds of imagery and related artifacts discussed are: Puritan gravestones, mourning pictures, departure pictures, memorial jewelry, painted post-mortem portraits, glass coffins, stage illusions, magical apparatus, spirit albums, photographic mourning pictures, family albums, and "forever flasks".

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Art History

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Frederick Hammersley

Second Committee Member

Richard Rudisill

Third Committee Member

Douglas Roland George

Fourth Committee Member

Leonard Lehrer

Keywords

Art History, Photography, Portrait Photography, Memorials, Gravestones, Puritanism

Recommended Citation

Snyder, Daniel Gyger. "American Family Memorial Imagery, the Photograph, and the Search for Immortality." (1971). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds/64