HISTORY OF FUNERAL HOMES

The funeral industry did not emerge until after the Civil War when the process of embalming became widespread and more accepted by the general public. Before the mid-19th century, the dead were often displayed in the family home in the "parlor," hence the term "funeral parlor" that is still in use today. HISTORY OF FUNERAL HOMES

The American funeral industry emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War, picking up steam at the turn of the twentieth century and gaining economic power by the middle of the century. Although the industry has long been the object of scathing public attacks, local funeral homes across the country have won respect as established and trusted places of business and as a source of comfort for families suffering from the loss of a close friend or relative. Variously called "undertakers," "funeral directors," and "morticians," America's new ritual specialists have transformed the twentieth-century experience of death and body disposal. HISTORY OF FUNERAL HOMES

The foundation of the emergent industry was embalming, a practice that gained legitimacy during the Civil War years. Although medical schools before the Civil War relied on various European methods of preserving dead bodies for instructional purposes, most Americans had no knowledge of the procedure and abhorred any "unnatural" intervention into the body's organic processes of decomposition. In antebellum America, the integrity of the dead body, even one disintegrating in the coffin, had to be preserved at all costs. Even though it might be placed on a cooling board, the interior of the corpse was generally not accessible to prying eyes, hands, or medical equipment. HISTORY OF FUNERAL HOMES EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

During and after the Civil War, embalming became acceptable to more Americans who wanted to ensure that, no matter what, they could have a last look at their lost loved ones. Many Northern families who could afford it arranged to have the sacred remains of their fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands shipped home from Southern battlefields. They hired death specialists who found innovative methods, including arterial injection, to preserve bodies for the long journey home. Thomas Holmes, one of the pioneering founding fathers of the modern funeral industry, perfected his skills and made a dramatic impact on his fellow undertakers during the Civil War. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

A critical turning point in popular awareness of embalming, and in legitimating it as a permissible American practice, was the cross-country journey of Abraham Lincoln's body after the war. Hundreds of thousands of people filed past the viewable body on display in cities from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois, and newspaper reports provided the public with graphic details about embalmers, whose methods were central to preserving a sacred relic that ritualistically united Americans after the divisive and bloody war. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

After the Civil War, increasingly more undertakers began to experiment with embalming as an alternative to other modes of preservation. By the early decades of the twentieth century, embalming had become a standard practice in much of the country. American undertakers, many of whom had connections with the furniture industry and had a growing interest in the production of coffins, began to focus on the transformed appearance of the body. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

Embalming assumed a central place in American burial practices for a number of reasons. First, instructors representing embalming chemical companies traveled the land, offering courses in the trade and conferring diplomas that signified professional expertise. In time, many of these companies established full- fledged mortuary schools. In addition, states began to recognize this modern professional occupation through licensing boards made up of established funeral directors and other civic leaders. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

Second, the rhetoric surrounding embalming relied on contemporary theories about public health and sanitation; many argued that embalmed bodies posed less of a threat to the health of a community than bodies left to rot in the ground naturally. Third, an entirely modern funeral aesthetic emerged in these early years, based in part on chemical company assertions about the value of providing mourners with a pleasing, well-preserved, and viewable corpse. Fourth, embalming proliferated because of an industry-inspired mythology that portrayed current practices as a technological culmination of ancient sacred rites dating back to ancient Egypt. Finally, embalming seemed to respond at some level to the needs and desires of Americans from a variety of ethnic, racial, and religious communities. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING

The rapid spread of embalming spurred the equally swift emergence of funeral homes across the country in the first few decades of the twentieth century, as American life was transformed by urbanization, medical advances, and the increasing prevalence of scientific attitudes and perspectives. Undertakers no longer traveled to the home of the deceased to prepare the body but instead transported corpses from the home or hospital to the funeral home. A mélange of business, residence, religion, and consumerism, the funeral home rapidly became an American institution in local neighborhoods. Funeral directors lived with their families in these homes, and very often wives and children worked with the father in preparing services for people in grief. Whether they helped friends, neighbors, or acquaintances, everyone who walked into the home shared one thing in common: They were customers engaged in a financial transaction. EMERGENCE OF EMBALMING