Photographs taken at the Funeral History Museum

Here are some of the photos that I took at the National Museum of Funeral History in Texas

Funeral History

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, Texas. I just wanted to share my experience with others. To begin, it is in North Houston and you can simply see their website for directions. I had no trouble finding it. There are very few restaurants or other attractions at the exit so if you plan to visit go prepared.
There is a $10 fee to see the museum, although I think it is cheaper for seniors. The majority of the museum is a collection of carriage hearses. They are absolutely beautifully restored. What a treat. Some of them were horse drawn and others motorized. These are all displayed in a large room surrounded by several other exhibits, such as a 9/11 memorial and various types of coffins and my favorite, a life size recreation of a coffin maker's shop.
In addition, there was a papal funeral and burial exhibit, a presidential funeral and burial exhibit which was small, but well done. There was also a nice Victorian mourning exhibit as well as an embalming and civil war exhibit. They also had a room with some other cultures represented such as the Mexican Day of the Dead and a Japanese hearse and coffin.
I really enjoyed the museum. It was informative and fairly well organized. I would have liked to have seen it flow a little better and maybe more artifacts in place of photographs.
For more information visit http://www.nmfh.org/

Alas, I still await the final work on indexing St. Louis No. 2, in the meantime I have had the pleasure of attending a lecture on the Irish in New Orleans during the yellow fever epidemic (specifically in 1853). Speaking was Dr. Laura Kelly of Tulane, Sponsored by Save Our Cemeteries. Needless to say, several SOC members were excited to find that St. Alphonsus (where the lecture was held) had maps of St. Joseph and St. Patrick. When I inquired about where the church had acquired the maps, an SOC Board member was already on it. He was able to establish that these maps are held in the Manuscript collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection. I will be in touch with him regarding when I can get my little hands on a copy. Finally, another step into the direction of navigating the New Orleans cemeteries. As soon as I have them, I intend to post them on my website. How exciting!! Use them. They are a boon!
I'll be writing shortly on Dr. Laura's lecture. It was fantastic!