1850-1900
1800-1850
1900-1950
The science of vaccination advances by leaps and bounds in the last half of the 19th century, greatly reducing the chances of dying young from disease. At the same time, the Civil War takes away many in their prime, and the U.S. experiences a new kind of mourning when, for the first time, a president is assassinated.
Joseph Lister's cleanliness techniques are dramatically reducing the number of deaths due to infection.
More and more people—children and adults—are getting vaccinated against deadly cholera, anthrax, rabies and typhoid fever.
American newspapers avoid the subject of sex but trumpet the macabre details of dying, even among ordinary persons.
The Civil War has created havoc with the popular idea of “the good death,” in which people die composed and at peace with God—ideally surrounded by loved ones at home.
More and more portraits of grieving families, including the recently departed in his or her coffin, are now done as photographs.
There have been experimental proposals to make coffins of iron, clay, glass or even rubber, instead of wood.
The greatest American speech ever was delivered on a Pennsylvania battlefield with more than half the dead soldiers still unburied.
Among the most devastating deaths have been those of two American presidents: one martyred in a theater and another gunned down in a train station.
