Development of Funeral

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CHAPTER 9

• Development of Funeral
  
• Transportation

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Transportation

• One of the most inescapable needs created by
  death is an organized society arises from the
  fact that the corpse must be moved from the
  point of death to the other place for preparation
  then funeralization and interment.
• As you become a funeral director you are faced
  with this very same problem
• What type of vehicle will you use?
• What will the vehicle look like?

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• So important is the collective act of bearing the
  dead to the place of sepulture that it has tended
  historically either to be incorporated into
  religious organization, or to come under
  religious control.
• Of all processions, the funeral procession is the
  oldest.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• The procession starts at a period antedating
  wheeled vehicles, and it has continued down to
  the present. The character and form of the
  procession, or to use the modern term, the
  funeral varies widely in different countries.
  Regardless of variety, it is one of the most
  universal acts.
• The word "funeral" is derived from funeralis, the
  Latin Word for torchlight procession.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• One of the standard pieces of equipment and the
  most common symbol of the funeral procession has
  been the hearse or the
• Funeral Coach

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• Origins of the word hearse
• French is herse.
• Latin is hirpex- meaning a rake or harrow.
• The first hearse looked like a huge rectangle
  rake with the teeth or prongs pointing upward.
• Remember the plumes on the casket?
• What did they stand for?

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• Hearses were also used to enclose the tomb or
  grave
• A hearse used to
  enclose the grave you ask???

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• As burial moved away from the churches and
  churchyards the need for better transportation
  became pinnacle to the funeral functionaries.
• This provided the bearing, by hand or shoulder
  carrying to be the birth point of the modern day
  hearse.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• The simple forerunner of the hearse was the bier
  or the bear.
• Similar to a hand-stretcher on which an
  uncoffined body was carried to the grave.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• As coffins were brought into popular use they
  were likewise born on the bier but the
  additional weight, especially in the case of
  lined or multiple coffins, necessitated an
  adaptation for the problem of long distances. One
  solution was to have two sets of bearers. Four
  of the oldest or most prominent men were called
  bearers another four, whose duty it was to
  relieve the bearers, were called Underbearers.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• The first instance of a hearse on wheels is found
  in the burial of Colonel Rainsborowe in 1648.
• By 1690 the hearse had become a necessity in
  England. Where the London Gazette advertised
  Hearses for hire.
• From this point forward until about the mid-19th
  Century hearse and bier were commonly
  interchangeable.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• Because the roads leading out from early towns
  and villages were often narrow, rough and muddy
  the early hearses were small and functional
  rather than elaborate, barely held had the room
  for the casket and the driver.
• The driver may have to even sit on or straddle
  the casket.
• Would you ever send the hearse out to a funeral
  with rain spots or mud on the fenders?
• Cracked windshield or broken tail-lights?

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• Colonial hearses for the wealthy were horse drawn
  wagons pulled with Six Horses.
• But most people still went to the grave on foot.
• Horse-drawn hearses became more widely used in
  the middle
  19th and early 20th
  century (1850-1910).

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• The making of gentlemans coaches involved
  considerable skill. It was said that coachmaking
  was an urban luxury craft
• One of the most spectacular symbols of colonial
  affluence and gentility was a gentlemens
  carriage and, as men grew richer in town and
  country the business of coachmaking prospered.

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Funeral Procession and the Hearse

• Many other functionaries became involved in the
  making of the hearses.
• Now that you have the hearses where do you get
  the horses to pull it?
• You are correct.The livery men started to become
  more involved with undertaking.
• Just as the cabinet makers and upholsters became
  involved with caskets livery men became involved
  with the introduction of the hearse.

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Hearses with Horses

• Until the outbreak of the Civil War, hearses were
  modeled all about the same.
• In about 1861 fashion was beginning to play a
  more important role in funeral equipage.
• From about 1860 forward styles in hearses changed
  with cyclical regularity at intervals of about
  every 15 years.
• What is your opinion of a funeral home that uses
  a hearse that is outdated?

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Hearses with Horses

• The hearses before the Civil War were basically a
  long, rectangle box with windows along the side
  of French Glass and skimped curtains and room for
  only one horse and the drivers seat.
• After the Civil War, the hearse became longer and
  higher, with full plate glass sides, fancy
  scroll-work along the top, metal columns and a
  scrolled iron neck for the driver to sit on.

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Hearses with Horses
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Innovators of the Hearse

• James Cunningham- exhibited at the New Orleans
  Cotton Exposition in 1884 featuring a funeral
  car. (See plate 51 on page 239).
• Shortly after the war, hearses for children came
  into use and the beautiful white childs hearse
  of the Stein Patent Burial Casket Works met with
  immediate popular approval.
• Throughout the last quarter of the 19th century
  childrens hearses were standard equipment for
  all undertakers and funeral directors.

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Innovators of the Hearse

• Hudson Samson- In 1889 he introduced a new style
  which was oval decked eight-postered and six
  columns.
• In 1893, Crane Breed-Exhibited a funeral car at
  the Chicago World Fair.
  Designed for West Indian
  and South American
  
  Trade.

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Innovators of the Hearse

• It included extraordinary size church-like
  design massive carvings in bass-relief
  gildings heavy gold fringes and tassels and
  lamps of gold weighing 2400 lbs. (opposed to avg.
  1600 lbs.) It was laden with golden angels and
  cherubs crucifixes and statues a processional
  scene over the middle glass in which the Saviour
  was depicted bearing the cross and receded by the
  two thieves the two Marys, a throng of Roman
  soldiers and others. Other sculptures over the
  quarter lights showed the adoration of the Christ
  child and the Ascension.

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Innovators of the Hearse

• The hearse was not sent to South America
  immediately, it was used in the funeral of
  assassinated Mayor Carter H. Harrison of Chicago.
• Later it did make its way to Havana, Cuba where
  for many years it was used in State Funerals.

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• In 1898 Hudson Samson, one of Americas most
  famous inventors in funeral fashions, proposed
  the most radical change in funeral car design to
  ever find its way into general use.
• He proposed a hearse that was entirely obscured
  by graceful draped imitation of cloth- an immense
  pall, held up in place by cords and tassels so as
  to form the draperies, the whole to be carved out
  of solid wood.
• This hearse was considered the greatest triumph
  ever achieved in the art of hearse making and
  sold for an estimated 4,000.00.

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Funeral Trolleys?

• With the development of gas powered vehicles and
  the electric streetcars the stage was set.
• What was the next hearse style?
• Funeral Trolley Car
• It was only big enough to carry the casket,
  undertaker and bearers
• Additional vehicles were provided for the
  flowers, and mourners.
• (See plate 53 on page 243).

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Funeral Trolleys?
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Funeral Trolleys?

• What do you think were some of the problems with
  the Funeral Trolly?
• People didnt like it because
• Iron wheels creeked and screeched on turns
• Rumbled and bounced through intersections
• It was thought of shooting through the streets
  at a high rate of speed.
• Do you think that the hearse should have a
  solemn speed?

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Introduction of the Gas Buggy

• Design of the gasoline-powered hearses
• Fred Hulberg in 1896 designed a hearse 16 ft.
  long and costing 6000.
• It was a truck-like vehicle with passenger
  section and a rectangle container directly above
  the motor for the casket.
• There is no record if any were actually produced
  or placed in operation. (See plate 55 on page
  248.)

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Introduction of the Gas Buggy
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Introduction of the Gas Buggy

• Crane Breed- June 1909 they had an auto-hearse
  on the market. (See plate 56 on page 249.)

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Introduction of the Gas Buggy

• Design of the gasoline-powered hearses
• Crane Breed- June 1909 they had an auto-hearse
  on the market. (See plate 56 on page 249.)
• It was enclosed, painted black with little
  decoration to it except a rather grotesque
  replica of the famous tomb of Scipio carved in
  wood atop the otherwise flat roof of the
  rectangular coach. For-posted, wood carved,
  draped window, horse drawn funeral car, still
  keeping however with the Scipio motif.
• It was even conceived that undertaker may even
  use a bicycle to transport the body to the grave.

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Introduction of the Gas Buggy

• There was a definite argument of the
  non-feasibility of the auto-funeral.
• Would involve a high outlay of cash.
• Auto hearses could go no faster than horse drawn
  hearses.
• Upkeep and the cost of trained chauffeurs would
  be excessive.
• The cost of operation would be so high that
  undertakers would have to cut costs on some other
  item.the casket.
• It seemed like the undertakers were rushing the
  families to the grave. The older people wanted a
  slow and leisurely , and more dignified trip to
  the cemetery.

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Introduction of Other Automobiles

• Ambulance
• Undertakers buggy
• Limousine
• Between 1910 and 1920 the automobile came to
  dominate the field of funeral transportation, and
  eventually replaced all other types of vehicles
  used in funeral service.

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Introduction of Other Automobiles

• Through World War 1 auto hearses tended to become
  increasingly more ornate.
• One company even marketed a hearse on the body of
  which was a statue of Gabriel blowing his horn.
• Does it take away from the funeral to use a
  hearse with the statues of Gabriel blowing his
  horn?

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Introduction of Other Automobiles

• Though patents were granted as early as 1901, it
  was not until after World War 1 that limousine
  hearses made their appearance.
• Tiring of ornately carved vehicles, funeral
  directors and the public turned toward the longer
  smoother lines of the limousine.
• Limousine hearses mark the beginning of the
  tendency toward the blending of the hearse and
  other conveyances in the funeral procession in
  pleasing style.

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Introduction of Other Automobiles

• What are some of the pros and cons of the
  limousine or family car?
• Do they have a place in funeral processions of
  today?

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Hearses

• The side servicing feature in hearses was
  introduced in 1926. This innovation has added the
  convenience and dignity of the funeral service as
  it makes possible loading the vehicle without the
  necessity of the pallbearers walking into the
  street, as it was sometimes muddy and dirty.

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Hearses

• Sizes and Colors
• Until the civil war hearses were black
• After the war they were varied sometimes gray but
  mostly a dark color.
• The size increased in length and width after the
  war.
• Childrens hearses
• Nearly always white
• Introduced about a decade after the civil war
• Why is white always associated with children?

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Hearses

• Sizes and Colors
• The most popular color combinations was the basic
  black hearse with fine lines of silver or gold.
• Light grey however became a favorite for carved
  hearses.

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Hearses

• Flower cars
• Developed for the transportation of the flowers.
• Regular hearses with special trays or receptacles
  attached to the sidewalls of the hearse body
  above the casket.

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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century

• Is it unacceptable to transport flowers in the
  hearse tot eh cemetery placed around the casket?
• What it the casket is draped with a flag?

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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century

• Hearses
• Limousines
• Flower Cars
• What is the modern term for a hearse today?

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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century

• The automobile effected a great change in the
  life of the individual, so has the development of
  the motor hearse, with its constant technological
  developments, helped to revolutionize the burial
  of the dead.
• The funeral directors responsibilities to the
  mourners, in terms of both safety and sentiment,
  likewise grew apace with the growth of his
  function in directing transportation.

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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century

• To organize and direct a procession which must be
  profoundly ceremonial, which cannot be rehearsed
  or repeated, and in which mistakes are always
  magnified by a high level of emotional intensity,
  defines and fixes responsibility which by
  conventional standards of occupational
  recognition elevates the funeral directors work
  above and beyond that of the craftsman,
  tradesman, or purveyor of petty personal services.

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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century
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Development of Funeral Cars Throughout the 20th
Century