Unsettling Victorian portraits of dead children propped up to look alive

There are many different ways to remember loved ones who have passed away – but propping their bodies up for a photo wouldn’t cross most of our minds.

But things were different in the 19th century, when post-mortem photography was the norm for grieving family members.

In this undated photo montage, Brandon Sistrunk, left, poses in southwest Asia and his wife, Ashley, and kids pose in Colorado Springs, Colo. After seeing her friendsí family Christmas photos, Ashley, wanted to make sure Brandon was included in theirs. So, she had Brandon take a photo on base. After putting the pictures together digitally, she had her family Christmas photo. Military wife comes up with genius way to make deployed husband part of Christmas

A new collection of daguerreotypes – the earliest form of photography – have been released showing people’s relatives slumped on chairs, or lain down as though they are sleeping.

As studio time was expensive, these daguerreotypes would often be the only time a person could capture their loved one’s likeness.

What resulted was a vast collection of eerie, and incredibly sad images, put together on the Thanatos Archive.