Pictures After Death: A Lecture on Postmortem Photography and Memorialization in 19th-Century America by Dr. Stanley B. Burns

Tuesday, May 21 at 6:30PM at the Museum of the City of New York

Photography of the dead was a common practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a way for mourners to visually “embalm” their loved ones. Until recently, however, this once ubiquitous genre of American photographs was largely unexplored. Dr. Stanley B. Burns, Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center, and distinguished author, archivist, and collector, has amassed the most comprehensive collection of this genre in the world and published three books on the subject: the Sleeping Beauty series. Dr. Burns will speak about how postmortem photography shaped American culture in the 19th century. Presented in conjunction with A Beautiful Way to Go: New York’s Green-Wood Cemetery and Co-sponsored by The New York Academy of Medicine.

'C-Span' the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network will be videotaping this lecture for presentation as a program on their American History series and will be available from their video library. This would be perfect as a teaching supplement to the history of photographic processes and the changing nature of memorialization practices.

The lecture is based on our Sleeping Beauty memorial photography book series, available from the Burns Press website.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
$6 Museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 general public
For more information or to register by phone, please call 917-492-3395.
Information on how to RSVP can be found at the museum's website here.

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd St.)
New York, NY 10029
212.534.1672

Directions by subway:
#6 Lexington Avenue train to 103rd Street, walk three blocks west, or #2 or #3 train to Central Park North/110th Street, walk one block east to Fifth Avenue, then south to 103rd Street. Ramp access is available at the 104th Street entrance.