After the invention of daguerreotype photography, it became popular in the Victorian era to memorialize people through cheaper, higher quality photographs instead of expensive and not so lifelike paintings. Because of the high childhood and infant mortality rate, this was a significant way to remember lost family members. In many cases, this was the only photograph that depicted the entire family together.
This brings us to a strange lawsuit described in the Bedford Weekly Mail on May 31, 1901:
A criminal libel case was set for trial Wednesday before Judge Stephenson. The complaint is as follows:
"Cleopatra Saladee, being duly sworn upon her oath says: that Newton E. Ennis on the 14th day of February, 1901, was a photographer engaged in the business of photography in the city of Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana. That on the 12th day of February, 1909, one George Saladee, a minor son of William Saladee and this affiant departed this life. That after the death of said deceased his said father and mother, who are husband and wife, procured the services of said Newton E. Ennis, photographer, aforesaid, to take a picture of said deceased, to wit: a photograph, for them, the said parents, and the said Newton E. Ennis did then and there make a photograph of said deceased. That said photograph was unsatisfactory, inaccurate and untrue, for which reason and other lawful reasons, the said parents failed to accept said photograph from said photographer and pay for the same: that said Ennis on the 25th day of April 1901 at the county of Lawrence and state of Indiana, then and there contriving and unlawfully, wickedly and maliciously intending to injure, vilify and prejudice said William Saladee and this affiant and to deprive them of their good name, credit and reputation and to bring them into great contempt, scandal, infamy and disgrace and with intent in like manner to blacken and vilify the memory of said deceased and to scandalize and disgrace his relatives and friends, did then and there unlawfully and maliciously write and publish and cause to be written and published a false, scandalous, malicious and defamatory libel of and concerning said parents and concerning the relatives and friends of said deceased in the words following, to wit: "Deadbeat," which said false, scandalous, malicious and defamatory words, the said Ennis then and there unlawfully and maliciously did write over and upon said photograph of said deceased person and did then and there unlawfully and maliciously place and post said photograph, upon which said words then and there appeared in a public place to wit: on a certain building on J street in said city, where the same was conspicuous and open to view by all persons pass and repassing on said street where the same was seen by divers persons passing and repassing on said street. That said libelous words were then and there unlawfully intended to charge and be understood as charging and were then and there by the divers persons who saw the same, understood to charge and mean, that said William Saladee and this affiant and other relatives of said deceased were irresponsible, dishonorable, dishonest deadbeats and not worthy of trust or confidence."
Prosecutor Zaring represents the State, J.H. Underwood the defendant. The matter was to come up Wednesday at 2 p.m., in Court house, before Judge Stephenson. The penalty, if guilty, is a fine of $5 to $1,000, and imprisonment not to exceed six months.
I found bits and pieces of the trial account, which reported that the State of Indiana:
"was unable to establish the fact that a photo of the dead boy Saladee had been exhibited with an offensive charge written on it, as alleged by Mrs. Saladee in her complaint. Three witnesses who saw a photo on the front of the Ennis gallery with writing on it were unable to identify it as the picture of Saladee, and a fourth witness who saw Saladee's photo on the same building saw no writing on it at all. On motion of the State a verdict of acquittal was rendered by the jury."
Beyond the Dark Veil: Post Mortem & Mourning Photography from The Thanatos Archive
Dead People Posing: The Mystery Behind Dead Photographs
Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital
The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-Currents in Art and Technology (Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series)
is his first book.
