The Morthouse

Via The Atlantic:

New York Police Department Evidence photo. Homicide victim - overhead view, ca. 1916-1920. At the corners, note the legs of the tripod supporting the camera above the body. (Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives)

Via The Atlantic:

New York Police Department evidence photo, homicide scene. Jos Kellner, 404 East 54th Street, murdered in hallway, on January 7, 1916. (Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives) 

Leipzig Suicides. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White, 1945. Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.

Leipzig City Council deputy mayor Dr. Lisso, member of Nazi party since 1932, lying dead while seated at his Town Hall desk, a suicide from cyanide, along with his wife and daughter, as American soldiers enter the city at the end of WWII.

Hughes Mortuary Neon Sign by Ballyhooligan on Flickr.

A nice 1940s winter family photograph in front of the neon sign of Hughes Mortuary

Child skeletons (National Museum of Health and Medicine) by Prof. Jas. Mundie (James G. Mundie) on Flickr.

Photograph by Andreas Larsen Dahl. De Forest, Wisconsin, ca. 1880. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society.

Funeral wreath of Caroline Keyser Preus, the wife of Lutheran minister Herman Amberg Preus.

Andreas Larsen Dahl, Funeral Party around Casket. Deerfield, Wisconsin, ca. 1874. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society.

A funeral party is assembled around a casket in front of an upright-and-wing frame house. Two older men on the left, one identified as Lars D. Reque, stand with bibles while several women wearing Norwegian-style patterned shawls are standing close to the casket. This is another house insured by the Hekla Fire Insurance Co., which sold to many Norwegian-American households in south central Wisconsin.

Grave of German Airman - Baron Von Richthofen at Sailly le Sec, Somme by National Library of Scotland on Flickr:

Red Baron’s grave, Sailly le Sec, France, 1918. The grave of Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918), better known as the ‘Red Baron’. Richthofen was a cavalry officer who became the most famous of all the World War I fighter pilots, bringing down a total of 80 Allied aircraft. He was shot down on 21 April 1918 and the British buried him in France with full military honours.

This photograph appears to have been taken soon after the burial as the earth is still freshly dug and there are wreaths over the grave. The card on the nearest wreath bears the words, ‘Royal Air Force’, a reminder that for the pilots, the war in the air was like a series of very personal duels.

A young boy studying the human skull. Nina Leen, 1948. Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.

Syrian bishop’s remains (funeral). Corpse seated in church. Matson Photo Service, [1940-1946]. Source: Library of Congress.

Syrian bishop’s remains (funeral). Corpse seated in church. Matson Photo Service, [between 1940 and 1946]. Source: Library of Congress.

Via Shorpy:

Another bird’s-eye view of Eleventh Avenue, a.k.a “Death Avenue,” on New York’s West Side as captured by the Bain News Service circa 1911.

Around 1850, the City of New York began building street-level railroad tracks on Manhattan’s west side. One of the avenues saw so many fatal accidents between the trains and pedestrians, horses, and cars that it became known as Death Avenue. In an effort to reduce the mayhem, men on horses (known as West Side Cowboys) were hired by the rail companies to ride in front of the trains waving red flags.

In 1929, the West Side Improvement Project began, which (among other things) resulted in the construction of elevated rail in place of the dangerous street-level trains. The park-ified remnants of these elevated structures can be enjoyed today as the High Line, a totally awesome place to sit down and eat a sandwich next time you’re in the City.

From Wikimedia Commons:

Public guillotining in Lons-le-Saunier, 1897. Picture taken on 20 April 1897, in front of the jailhouse of Lons-le-Saunier, Jura. The man who was going to be beheaded was Pierre Vaillat, who killed two elder siblings on Christmas day, 1896, in order to rob them and was condemned for his crimes on 9 March 1897.