Yellow Fever, Death, & Mourning in 19th Century New Orleans

 

     As education coordinator for The Hermann-Grima/Gallier Houses, I recently did a middle school presentation on Yellow Fever, Death, and Mourning in 19th century New Orleans.  Over the next few weeks, I will share much of the presentation on this blog.  The students and teachers really enjoyed it and I felt it appropriate to share it with others who are interested in this type of subject matter.  The presentation was geared for 7th grade students, but is still interesting for all ages.

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/