[coll. KJG]
verso :
Dr Richard Burr, embalming surgeon, Army of the James.
These are the original views taken by « Brady », the Government Artist, during 1861-2-3-4-5.
They can be obtained only of JOHN C. TAYLOR, 17 Allen Place, Hartford, Conn.
[Copyrighted]
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http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A31682
Title
Dr. Richard Burr, Embalming Surgeon, Army of the James
Collection Title
Civil War stereographs, 1861-1865.
Series
Photographic history. The war for the Union. War views.
Creator / Contributor
Brady, Mathew B., approximately 1823-1896
E. & H.T. Anthony (Firm)
Identifier (local)
ad04001
1817
Date
ca.1861-ca.1865
Institution
New-York Historical Society
Description
Stereograph: Doctor embalming dead soldier.
Subject
United States. Army of the James–Photographs
Embalming–Photographs
Physicians–Photographs
United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865–Casualties–Photographs
Material type or medium of original
Stereograph
Image
Publisher
New-York Historical Society
Rights management
This digital image may be used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the New-York Historical Society. For more information, please visit the New-York Historical Society’s Rights and Reproductions Department web page at http://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Notes
Brady receives credit for the stereograph from the information published in the book, Anthony: An American Photographic Pioneer by William and Estelle Morder.
Call Number / Phrase
PR-065-774-1
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http://www.civilwarundertaker.net/history.htm
DR. BURR AT HIS FIELD EMBALMING TENT
In the accompanying photo Dr. Richard Burr, an embalming surgeon, is performing the embalming process on a soldier recovered from the battlefield. During the early years of the American Civil War, a new profession began to emerge. Some short time before the War was declared in 1861, Dr. Thomas Holmes, had developed a process by which a liquid could be injected into the body to preserve it for an extended period of time. The veins would be pumped full of this liquid to arrest and prevent decay thus making it possible to ship the body home. As officers and soldiers were killed in battle, more and more families wanted their loved one returned home for a funeral service and burial. With the new embalming process this became possible, expensive though it was. As families were able to raise the money, or soldiers had items of value to prepay for their own embalmment and shipment home, the undertaker would search the battlefields and hospitals hoping to find the body for whom they had contracted.
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