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Here in Houston not too far from me is a place called "The Funeral Museum". I have never been, but I heard it's really wild. From horse drawn hearses to double body caskets with glass tops for easy viewing.

I beleive this piece of memorabilia belongs in this place.
Places like this would give me nightmares. I have never been to it.

http://www.nmfh.org/
 
The seller also has a brochure for the "deVille" motor hotel in NOLA i tried to take a peep at the 1950's cars, i think one is a Cadillac and earlier than 1959.  Small tail fins.  The lift for the funeral home prolly made some hard working peoples jobs easier.  There is nothing harder to lift than a human, dead or alive.  alr
 
That Reminds Me, Care To Come To Tea Dear?

Nevermind the odd whiff around the house, we've had a terrible problem with the drains this year. Those noises coming from the basement? Oh it's nothing probably the boilers acting up again. While you are here would you mind going down to have a look?

*LOL*
 
My dad sold hearses and ambulances (Miller-Meteor of St. Paul, MN) the last three years of his life. I'd travel with him occasionally during the summer, and consequently spent a fair amount of time at funeral homes in the tri-state area. Saw a number of devices similar to the one in the brochure. I will never, ever forget the smell of the body preparation rooms. Yeesh!

I suppose this device falls into the "something for the ghoul with everything" category, LOL.

Your oddest find yet, Launderess.
 
And did you know that there are "pack & ship" mortuaries too?

Long time ago we had a neighbor who ran one of these. He didn't have a funeral home. His "office" was in an office building. He was used when someone passed on and would not have a service in that town but needed to be shipped back home where the service would be held. So he'd pick up the body, embalm it and then take it to the airport or train station for shipment. And there are a ton or rules/laws to comply with on how the body is to be prepped for shipment.

I'm willing to bet that most people in the building where his office was located didn't even know what kind of business he was in.
 
My cousin is an embalmer for a funeral home chain in the St. Louis area, and boy does he have some stories.  I'll have to send him this listing as I'm sure he'll find it very interesting.  Thanks Launderess, I think?!? 
 
Packing And Shippment

Of deceased persons has been around since the days of railroad travel (1930's or so) but has taken off (so to speak)now that jet air travel has made traveling long distances faster. The late James Dean travelled onboard a train that carried his deceased mother back to their hometown (IIRC) for burial. Each time the train stopped at a station or for water/coal he would leave the passenger section and go to where the casket was kept.

Modern embalming and for that matter sealed casket designs owe much to WWII and the military. Unlike WWI many families of fallen soliders did not wish their loved buried overseas, but wanted the bodies back "home". So while there are good numbers of military buried in France and all over Europe and so forth, a great many were returned back to the states soon as conditions allowed.

Ever wonder what a deceased looks like after ten or more years post internment?

*WARNING* Link contains some graphic and real photo's of exhumed bodies. May not be something one wishes to see before breakfast and or morning coffee, or for that matter if prone to nightmares.

 
@ Launderess

I seem to recall (being an avid internet reader and aviation "buff"), that a deceased person travelled on a DC-10 back in its troublesome days (before they ironed out the minor issue of the cargo door not locking and decompressing the aircraft) was lost when a DC-10's cargo door blew out, before causing the aircraft to crash/emergency land (I think it was an American Airlines flight from Chicago).

 

The poor guy was cargo (in the coffin), and when the door blew, he was the first to go hurtling out the back. 
 
That AA flight out of DTW was a regular passenger flight. The plane did not crash but the pilots were able to return to the airport and land safely. The casket that fell out of the cargo hold landed in a farmer's field and when the farmer first found it he thought it was a doll.

When the cargo door let go, the floor of the cabin compressed down about 18 inches and crushed several hydraulic lines thereby disabling them. Fortunately one out of three backup systems remained working allowing the plane to land safely.

What was interesting about this incident is that McDonald-Douglas (builders of the DC10)knew that the door safety mechanism could be over rode with as little as 15lbs of pressure. So the rampers thought the door was shut when they used force on it to turn the locking handle. But they never looked in the sight glass to ensure the locking pins for the door were in place like they should have. A few months later a THY (Turkish Airlines) DC-10 did crash in Paris with 0 survivors due to the same exact thing. This time the floor damage was more severe and all three hydraulic lines were damaged so the pilot had no way to control the plane.
This was 20something years before United 232 in Iowa where an exploding engine severed all three hydraulic systems including the backups. It seems in DC type aircraft the main lines and the redundants are all routed through the same place in the fuselage where on Boeing aircraft all the systems take different routes through the fuselage.

When shipping a person by air, the casket is usually put in a cardboard box to prevent damage. You will notice that their is either a black line on the top of one end of the box or the word "Head". You are supposed to load the box with the line towards the front of the aircraft. Why? Because if you put them the other way they may leak embalming fluid through the holes in the skull.

I flew the -10 as we called it for about 10 years. It turned out to be a pilot's favorite after the 10 years or so it took the manufacturer to work all the kinks out of it. I liked flying it, but I flew it with respect and was always on the lookout in case it decided to bite one day.

And airlines have to give a name for the remains so it can go in the reservation system and to prevent passengers in the boarding area from knowing what you are talking about. It seems all the airlines use the name "Jim Wilson". So if you hear the gate agent talking to a ramper about "Jim Wilson", you know you have a stiff onboard. [this post was last edited: 9/18/2012-14:47]
 
I'm chuckling at the original post of the lift. Having just designed a funeral home, some of that stuff is WAY too fresh in my mind....
 
A friend of mine worked as a Mechanical Engineer for a big casket manufacturer in the area, and I'll always remember two things he told me.

1) The throughput from the plant for metal caskets was one every 30 seconds or so, from rolls of steel to assembled, painted, trimmed and boxed, ready for the truck. Obviously each unit took a long time to put together but there were so many on the line at one time that the output was quite brisk. Gave me some perspective on how many the industry needed.

2) Undertakers love to party and can be really, *really* wild at their conventions. Suppose that makes sense too - I would need to let off some steam if I did that for a living.
 
That Funeral museum is only about a 10 minute drive from my house! I get weirded out just seeing the small discrete sign on the feeder road saying "Funeral Museum" and a right arrow on it.

Up to recently it used to cost only $2.00 for admission, now it's $10.00! I never have gone but I did watch that video you posted and I was able to get through that. I think if I visited the place I would have severe nightmares for months to come.

Why are a lot of decorations related to death in the Victorian style? We have a friend who restored one of the large mansions on Galveston Island and he and his wife decorated the place in high Victorian style. It's just like you stepped back in time to the 1860's. When we visit, I feel like I am in a funeral home. It really gives me the creeps. We've been offered to stay the night at this house and I told Karen I would probably be dead in the morning from fear of what evil lurks in that house at night!

This kind of stuff just bothers me.
 
Victorian Mourning

Long before Queen Victoria came to the throne all European countries and elsewhere had their own mourning traditions, however one event changed things at least in Great Britain,and much of the United States where at least the upper classes tended to follow customs,fashions and mores of the "UK": Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort died. That event sent the young widow into pretty much a permanent state of mouring the rest of her long life.

What followed through the Victorian and much of the Edwardian period was in some cases an almost morbid custom of mourning and or fascination with death.

Besides the strict rules about who could wear what and when, which fell mainly to the wealthy and new middle class ladies who had time for shutting themselves up and money to spend on clothing, there was all sorts of things such as broches and bracelets made from a lock of hair from the deceased.

Photography had just come on the scene during the Victorian age and the rage was for persons to have pictures taken of the deceased (sometimes with the whole family) as a momento and or to send copies to those whom could not attend the funeral. There is a *HIGHLY* collectable book of "post mortem" pictures called "Sleeping Beauties" made from a collection of such photographs.

It was during the Victorian era we started to get those grand and to some gaudy horse drawn hearses along with the masses of heavy drapery and what not that would be brought in to turn whatever room was being used in the family home to hold the wake.

Allot of this started to die down after WWII,especially in Europe. So many persons had died that governments and society wanted to "move on" and not give comfort to the enemy nor dwell on the past by exaggerated displays of grief.

Gone With The Wind was set during this period and you see Scarlett at first revolting at having to wear full widow's mourning of the period (I'll just go around scaring people in *THAT* thing),she quips tossing her veil aside in favour of a pretty hat. Later after her second husband's (Mr. Kennedy) funeral we see the remaining decorations still in the front parlor when Rhett Butler calls.

http://morningpassages.com/2010/04/post-mortem-photography/
 
The heavy "colonial" style or Victorian style of funeral homes/parlors in the US is starting to die down too and move to lighter, more uplifting designs and even contemporary buildings which don't look like the typical funeral home (which often seem like they could double as family restaurants). I think it's also to get funeral homes to be more like modern sacred spaces, elegant and light-filled.

Launderess - no New Orleans Jazz Band send off?
 
Decomp Video

Kinda interesting. Although more important things have come to mind, I've wondered on more that one occasion what my mother would look like after being in the ground 44 years.

I had to silence the "music". I hate that crap rap (or if you prefer, rap crap)! I wish someone would bury it and NEVER let it return!
 
When I was little, I remember funeral homes being more in the Victorian style. My parents used to drag me to every wake they went too. The refrigerator like coolness of the place combined with the odor of all the flowers used to give me nightmares. It seemed that in the 1950's the wakes would go on for days. I think maybe that traumatized me when I was young. Two or three days and for each day of the wake full family attendance was required. Nowadays it seems just one night or maybe the morning of the funeral service will do. Thank God.

You are right, the newer funeral homes seem to be more light and bright and instead of imposing a sense of gloom and doom on you they seem to be trying to be more uplifting. In fact a few months ago we went to a wake where a friend of ours was at and the chapel even had stained glass windows in it which let in a lot of light. I didn't feel that creeped out at that one. And for some strange reason I agree the newer funeral homes do remind me of cafeteria style restaurants.

Another thing I find weird. Back in 1973 my favorite aunt passed away from a heart attack. But after her funeral they had a big meal served at a catering hall.
For some reason I always thought this was in poor taste. But now that I am older I can see how it's really a chance for the survivors to get together one last time.

As far as traditions go the airline industry has it's own too. If you are a pilot and you die, a lot of airline people that worked for any airline or previous airline you worked for will show up at your wake and funeral wearing their uniforms. And if you die away from home the airline usually asks some of the people that knew you at the airline to go to the your house to notify your family, in uniform. And it's usually three people.

And if you are a pilot, you never die; you just "Gone West". It was written back around 1918 during WWI, but it seems to have been adopted for all aviators today.

Do not think of them--our glorious dead--
As laying tired heads upon the breast
Of a kind mother to be lulled to rest;
I do not see them in a narrow bed
Of alien earth by their own blood dyed red,
But see in their own simple phrase--Gone West--
The words of knights upon a holy quest,
Who saw the light and followed where it led.

Gone West! Scarred warrior hosts go marching by,
Their longing faces turned to greet the light
That glows and burns upon the western sky.
Leaving behind the darkness of the night,
The long day over and the battle won,
They seek for rest beyond the setting sun.
 
Post Funeral Meal

aka the Repass is very common in many cultures here in the USA, Europe and elsewhere.

Either everyone brings something to the mourner's home,and or the family cooks/caters, or a church hall/restaurant/pub, etc.. is hired out. It is as you say just away for family and friends who are together anyway because of the event to pay their respects to the family.

Long wakes are fast becoming a thing of the past here as well. With even the most simple funeral starting at $10K, who can afford three days of viewing? If there is a need to wait for family and friends to travel great distances better to schedule a bit later (if religous customs permit) than incur the costs of wakes lasting several days. Not to mention the emotional stress on family. Who wants to sit in a funeral home twice a day for three or more days.

Tell you another thing, cremation is becoming more and more common, even amoung Catholics and other religons that formerly shunned the practice. Between the funeral/graveside costs and those of perpetual care many families if not the individual themselves (via making their wishes known before their demise), are choosing to be cremeated.

unless one has purchased a plot years ago or the family has a vault/plot many are shocked just how much a grave costs. Then there is also if one can find room at a local cemetary because many are filling up fast. Land costs being what they are and the NIB group it is not always easy for a cemetary to expand. Lucky ones have lands enough to expand but many find themselves fenced in by residental development that didn't exsist when the place was planned. The alternative is to start digging up those whose care payments have long ceased.
 
All That Black Mouring Drapery and Widow's Weeds Is Just

IMHO.

Not to mention depressing and quite honestly rather scary.

Though if done properly (Jackie Kennedy at President Kennedy's funeral) it can be tasteful, but one takes the advice from an old etiquette book; life is for the living and while there is a time and place for paying one's respects to the dead things can be carried too far.

In fact think it was an old Emily Post etiquette book from the 1960's that discouraged long periods of mourning and for widows and or other female members of the family from going around in weeds for extended periods.
 

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