quiz 6 (history of US embalming)

Question 1

pre civil war times

Answer 1

• victorian influence
• have a good death
• antebellum = pre civil war
• synchronistic innovation movement

Question 2

pre civil war preparations of bodies

Answer 2

• embalming done for anatomical studies
• ice used for funerary preservation
• also used: salt, metals, alcohols, acids, alkalis, oils, turpentine, spices
• prohibited by law: arsenic, mercury

Question 3

Jean Gannal

Answer 3

• wrote embalming manual (1838)
• was French
• R. Harlan translated it to English

Question 4

pre war transportation of bodies

Answer 4

• charcoal: for smell
• alcohol: was expensive and for dehydrating
• sealed containers: decomposition still an issue

Question 5

when the war initially breaks out

Answer 5

• April 12, 1861 through May 26, 1865
• undertakers/surgeon embalmers/embalmers go to washington dc
• evisceration was primary means of preservation
• was learned/perfected from anatomical study
• was too primitive and arterial embalming preferred

Question 6

transportation demands

Answer 6

• bodies were shipped home decomposing
• only coffins usually provided
• at best body shipped home covered in charcoal

Question 7

colonel Elmer Ellsworth

Answer 7

• was president Lincoln’s law clerk
• 1st officer to die in civil war
• was embalmed and viewed
• funeral in white house
• the most valuable “embalming” in funeral service

Question 8

dr. Thomas Holmes

Answer 8

• father of american embalming
• set up embalming encampments
• credit for embalming 4,028 soldiers
• embalmed for free in dc and new york for pr
• would challenge people to be better than him
• created “innominata” - secret embalming chemical

Question 9

southern embalmers

Answer 9

• duguid undertakers
• drs. Sampson and George duguid
• embalmed both civilians and soldiers

Question 10

1st african american embalmer

Answer 10

• Prince Greer
• was a slave to confederate calvary officer
• became an assistant to dr. W.R. Cornelius in Nashville

Question 11

battlefield embalming

Answer 11

• quartermaster worked in dc area coordinating transportation of dead and coffin availability
• soldiers morale dropped when embalming signs went up

Question 12

early pre arrangements

Answer 12

• “body hunters” would find bodies and return them to families
• union families paid for bodies to be found
• confederate soldier bodies often left
• black soldiers recovered the dead/took records/assisted with embalming

Question 13

William Bunnell

Answer 13

• brother in law to Holmes
• setup battle field tents/barns
• was the worker of the group Homes was pr person

Question 14

dr. Richard Burr

Answer 14

• credited with most famous embalming picture

Question 15

C.B. Chamberlain

Answer 15

• from Philadelphia area
• embalmed at Gettysburg
• became a post war embalming teacher

Question 16

Willie Lincolns death

Answer 16

• 2/20/1862 of typhoid
• one of abe lincolns sons
• was prepared by the firm of Brown and Alexander of washington dc
• Henry Cattell embalmed Willie

Question 17

General Grant’s general order

Answer 17

• order 39: excluded embalmers from military areas
• led to establishment of embalming licenses

Question 18

lincon’s assassination

Answer 18

• shot at ford theater by John Wilkes Booth
• Lincoln was taken across the street for medical attention

Question 19

preparation of the president

Answer 19

• body removed from white house
• embalmed by Henry Cattell of Brown and Alexander

Question 20

Lincolns coffin

Answer 20

• solid walnut
• lined with lead
• covered in black cloth
• 6’6” long
• sterling silver handles and studs

Question 21

Lincolns journey “home”

Answer 21

• made multiple stops around the country
• from washington to springfield

Question 22

Lincoln in state

Answer 22

• in white house from april 19-21
• secretary of state wanted bruising around Lincolns eye to be visible to public
• lincoln said to be as hard as marble

Question 23

the funeral car

Answer 23

• Cattell accompanied the body retouching it
• Q.M. Sands coordinated the journey home
• Willie’s body was with Lincolns

Question 24

the receiving vault

Answer 24

• lincoln and son willie temporarily stored at base of hill waiting final tomb preparation

Question 25

Lincolns body in Springfield

Answer 25

• Mary Todd too distraught to accompany husband home
• coffin finally buried in steel cage surrounded by concrete 10 feet under

Question 26

significance of lincolns funeral

Answer 26

• first president embalmed
• longest/largest modern american funeral
• funeral service profession gained national acclaim

Question 27

the aftermath

Answer 27

• most surgeon-embalmers return home after war
• work as doctors, undertakers, cabinet makers
• embalming sparingly used until early 1900s

Question 28

other influences

Answer 28

• embalming instructors: experience from lead to spread of knowledge
• rhetoric of sanitation for public health popularized

Question 29

evolution of injection

Answer 29

• arterial injection
• patent: 1856 by J Anthony Guassardia
• was hand pump
• gravity injector
• electric embalming machine
• trocar (Samuel Rogers)