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Southern Standard, Columbus, Indiana, January 22, 1853
I’m not surprised these didn’t overtake traditional coffins, they look pretty creepy! The idea was that the bodies would stay in better condition because the coffins were “air tight”. That’s why they had windows - so you could view the face without having to open the casket. Some advertisements called them “embalming coffins”. They’d also make things a little more difficult for grave robbers. Similar coffins were also used if the person had died from a contagious disease. The coffins came with a door that would cover the face window, and the upraised bit over the chest was a name plate.
However, we would like much to know what were the “description” and “value” given on this Pasadena woman’s ashes when offered for mailing. The ashes must have weight approximately five pounds, and five pounds of ashes are worth, perhaps, five cents. It would be somewhat embarrassing to mark a postal package “mother’s ashes” “value 5 cents,” for instance.
..appeared to them and protested that her life in the spirit world has been made unhappy because the woman was buried in a white veil instead of a black veil..
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