--part1_0.4815fa23.256b13c2_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Maybe the following will help those with questions about embalming in the 1880's. First you will see the answer, then follows my email with questions. Karen --part1_0.4815fa23.256b13c2_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from rly-zc03.mx.aol.com (rly-zc03.mail.aol.com [172.31.33.3]) by air-zc03.mail.aol.com (vx) with ESMTP; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 07:37:10 -0500 Received: from nfda.org ([207.67.66.1]) by rly-zc03.mx.aol.com (v65.4) with ESMTP; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 07:36:57 1900 Received: from GRPWISE-Message_Server by nfda.org with Novell_GroupWise; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 06:35:15 -0600 Message-Id: <[email protected]> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 06:35:06 -0600 From: "Kathie Walczak" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Embalming Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Embalming was used widely during the Civil Ware to preserve bodies sent home= to families. Thomas Holmes was the "father of American embalming. First usi= ng embalming to preserve cadavers for anatomical study and later working wit= h Washington, DC to train and send surgeons and others out in the field to e= mbalm union soldiers. Abraham Lincoln asked Holmes to embalm a close friend=20= and later Lincoln was embalmed for the journey to Springfield. After Lincoln= was embalmed more people requested the process to be done. Schools of embal= ming started up and by the 1880's several chemical companies were started to= produce the embalming fluids. During that time more and more requested the=20= preservation of the body through embalming for viewing purposes and the "col= d air preservers" soon disappeared and embalming took over. =20 If you would like more information of embalming in the United States, there=20= is a book "History of American Funeral Directing" by Habenstein, Lamers & Ra= ether that has a full chapter on embalming. Hope this information helps. Kathleen Walczak Mgr., FSEF Library, Marketplace Mgr., NFDA Research & Information NFDA Store >>> <[email protected]> 11/19/99 06:55PM >>> Question: On one of the genealogy news groups I subscribe to via Email, there has been= =20 some discussion about embalming. In the 1880's, were they embalming? There= =20 seems to be some question as to when embalming became an absolute, instead=20 of, if one could afford it. Thanks, Karen Foster Montgomery --part1_0.4815fa23.256b13c2_boundary--