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Since last winter went so swimmingly, let's try it again! TFS has very graciously opened her home in the west San Fernando Valley to me again. This time her daughter AS (and dog and cat) are there too. Two women + two dogs + two cats = not my usual solitary winter again. Huzzah!
Place name links like Los Angeles, CA go to Wikipedia. Place name links like Los Angeles use a local tourism or government website.
 
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2014.04.13 National Museum of Funeral History
 
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casket shroud
    In a non-descript building in north Houston, TX the National Museum of Funeral History houses the country's largest collection of funeral service artifacts.    

view from
   

the entrance
 
We could only make one stop in Houston, and once I saw this place listed it was a natural choice, part of our quirky-museum wanderings.

The museum was low-lit, taxing my cheap pocket camera. I've pushed some pictures when they were really dark, but left most as-is to save a lot of work and keep my image file sizes small. This museum shows signs of needing more space - some similar items are scattered around the place. So unlike my usual museum order based on how we walked through, this one has been ordered more by the topics represented.

 
Hearses: Horse-Drawn
 

 
 


1832 Horse Drawn Hearse
   

1880 Rockfalls Hearse


1888 Kimball Brougham ("widow's coach")
   

 
sleigh hearses


 
   

Hearse, late 1800s
   

1900 Children's White Hearse (Quebec)
   

 


1850 German Hearse

1860 German Hearse
   

 
   
History of the Restoration of the Funeral Carriage of King of France Louis the 18th
   

 
 
Hearses: Motorized
 

1916 Buick Sayers & Scovill Hearse
   

oak hand-carved to resemble drapery
   

two levels for flowers and casket
           

1916 Packard Funeral Bus
   

the only surviving vehicle of its kind

1921 Rockfalls Hearse
   

 
   

1924 Ford Model TT Hoover Hearse
   

mahogany hand-carved to resemble drapery and columns
   

1926 Sayers & Scovill (S&S) Hearse
   

 

1929 Studebaker - Superior Hearse
   

1935 Studebaker Dictator Superior Hearse
           

1938 Henney-Packard Flower Car
   

 
   

 

1939 Superior - LaSalle Mount Claire Hearse
   

 
   

1940 LaSalle Touring Sedan
   

1951 Superior - Cadillac Laundaulet Hearse
   

1972 Japanese Ceremonial Hearse
A modified 1972 Toyota Crown Station Wagon, with music system and speakers mounted on the outside to play music during the funeral procession. The casket is carried on the roof.
 
   

 
   

1973 Mercedes Hearse

Used in the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco
           

 


 
 
Caskets
 

Old Casket Shop
   

1925 Glass Casket
   

 
   

The Money Casket (1970s)
   

Cruciform Casket (early 1900s)
   

Casket for Three (1930s)
Fantasy Coffins of Kane Quaye

Kane Quaye (1922-1992) was a Ghanain carpenter turned master coffin builder who made a reputation for elaborate and representative coffins.
   

 
   

 
   

 
 
Artifacts and Ephemera
 

Early Funeral Home Advertising Items


$105.75 for a 1899 funeral
   

 
   

1926 advertisement in "The Casket and Sunnyside"
   

 


 
   

1949 advertisement for Batesville "Monoseal" casket
   

Marcsellus Casket Company Salesman Sample (1920-35)


Buffalo Burial Vault Works brochures
 
History of Embalming
 

entrance


Mummification
   

Civil War practices


Early Embalming (circa 1920s)
   

Icebox Containers, Adult and Youth Coffins
   
From the 1850s there was an emerging practice to encase the deceased in a receptacle whose claim to public acceptability lay in the fact that it was beautiful and thus suitable for funerals. Five major themes in fulfilling the proper function of the burial receptacle were utility, status indication, preservation of the body, protection, and aesthetic representation.

Prior to the contemporary principle of chemical embalming, undertakers employed various devices for preserving the deceased by application of ice. Surrounding the deceased with ice in a traditionally-designed coffin was objectionable for a number of obvious reasons. New designs emplying a cooling board along with a compartment for ice storage below the deceased because widespread as an acceptable method of temporary preservation. The Ice-box coffin was used for over two decades until the practice of embalming by injection became standard procedure.

The late 1920s and early 1930s ushered in the modern era of funeral home service to families. A gradual shift from in-home embalming and funeral services led to the expanded conveniences of the "complete" funeral home.
   

Wicker "first call" basket
   

Embalming Tools


Embalming Machines (early 1900s)
   

Table with Eckels Gravitation Injectors
   

Funeral Home parlour


 
 
Famous People
 

Michael Jackson | Elizabeth Taylor
   

Suspense and Thrillers
   

Wild Wild West
   

Gone Too Soon
   

Frank Sinatra
   

Sally K. Ride | Neil A. Armstrong

 
   

 
   

 
   

 
   

 
   

Buck Owens
 
Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes
 

 

 

 
   

Zucchetto
(Skull Cap)
   

 
   

 
   

Election of a Pope


Papal Vestments
   

Rite of Papal Death

 

 

Preparation for a Papal Funeral

Funeral Mass

 
   

John Paul II
   

Papal Coffins
   

Papal Coffin


Rite of Interment
   

1982 Range Rover Popemobile


 
   
 
Mexican Day of the Dead
 

 
   

 
    Tucked in the back of the museum, an odd little diorama of a Mexican household with death knocking at the door. It sparked a completely irreverent cackle from TFS.
 
Presidents
 

Lincoln
   

(not the real) Lincoln
   

Lincoln Funeral
   

Lyndon Baines Johnson
John F. Kennedy
   

Harry S. Truman pins
   

Presidential Funeral Hearse
Ronald W. Reagan
Gerald R. Ford
 
An odd yet entertaining and informative couple hours. There's a gift shop too, with death-related items like a "The Cremator" BBQ apron, t-shirts with "Graduate of Undertaker University", and items with the museum's branding. I got a can coozie.
   

 
    Not related to the museum, except for being deceased, this giant statue of Sam Houston along the I-45 about an hour north of Houston. At 67 feet (20.4 meters) tall it can't be missed from the road.
 
 
< Previous
Galveston
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     Next >
To San Antonio Through Texas Hill Country
 
 

Jerome's
Blogs
     Valley    National Museum of Funeral History   
                 Here                                  There           
50    Clippings    Galleries    Golf   Bristol    Beach    Valley
  
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Document ENR/NAUW/0.2:2014.04.25    A branch of The BRIDGE Tree