Ravatalfényképek az 1910-es évek vidéki Magyarországáról a Néprajzi Múzeum gyűjteményében
Post-mortem photographs from rural Hungary in the 1910s in the collection of the Museum of Ethnography

Summary/Abstract: In peasant communities, having photographs taken – as was typical of the practice of other social classes and groups – was tied to specific occasions. Funerals also offered opportunities for photography, which had so far been barely covered in domestic literature, during which the deceased’s catafalque or coffin was captured, usually together with the grieving family members. These catafalque photographs can be defined as a type of post-mortem photography. The study presents the characteristics of this type of photography through catafalque photos in the collection of the Museum of Ethnography (Budapest). The photography collection of the Museum of Ethnography grew significantly during 1921–1922, when ethnographers purchased approximately 25,000 photographs from small town and village studios across the country. The 162 catafalque photographs that make up the subject of this study were also acquired by the Museum at this time. These photographs are special relics of early 20th-century studio photography, also preserving valuable information about the history of funerals for ethnographic science. In addition to describing the setting options in the photographs and touching on the topic of the “wedding of the dead”, contemporary press sources and newspaper advertisements placed by funeral companies help identify the details of the catafalques captured in the images.

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