What a fascinating collection you have. Many of the deceased were 19th century. Some from the civil war era. I think one or two of them were arsenic embalmed war dead who were being shipped to their families. Arsenic was excellent for preventing decomposition. It kills all bacteria and insects. But, it's extremely toxic to people too. Some of those arsenic embalmed corpse were exhumed in recent years. They look almost in as good of condition as they were one hundred years ago.
What especially interests me is that photo of a cadaver room at a late 18th century medical school. They didn't have refrigeration to preserve them. So they often embalmed the cadavers with alcohol. It didn't work the greatest. But, it was sanitary. Those institution obtained their cadavers from various sources such as morgues, prisons, families too poor to bury their dead and of course, backdoor deliveries. (Grave Robbers) Wouldn't it be interesting to have more background information regarding that photo?
Back then, anybody could dig up a friend to play with.
