In early America, it was standard practice to display a dead loved one in your home. Families prepared, dressed, and displayed their dead in the front room or sometimes a bedroom. They ...

Death masks — made out of a wax or plaster cast put on a dead person's face — have long been part of human history. Below, morgue workers make a death mask of notorious Depression-era gangster John ...

When Martin Luther died on February 18, 1546, during a trip back to his hometown of Eisleben, Germany, it is said that plaster was made and spread over his lifeless face and hands. Lukas Furtenagel, ...