Let’s take a look at some quirky and interesting funeral photos.
Every person who has ever lived has, or will soon have, the need for a funeral.
Since life is so full of wonder, interest, intrigue, mystery, humor, and much more, it should be no surprise that death would have its share of the strange and wonderful.
Here is our collection of fascinating funeral photos that capture a small hint of the paradoxical beauty, unsolvable mystery, odd irony, and morbid humor of funerals.
14 Fascinating Funeral Photos
1. The Stranger’s Tomb
Used by permission
Pictured above is the replacement tombstone at The Stranger’s Tomb at Ladonia Cemetery in Fannin County, Texas. The original grave marker read:
In October 1867, a man was found wandering in the Donaldson’s yard. He was incoherent and very sick. He never was able to tell them who he was. He died October 4, 1867 and was buried in the Donaldson’s plot in The Ladonia Cemetery.
No one knows anything else about this person or event.
2. I’ll Be Right Back
Just waiting around until the Zombie Apocalypse.
Read: If your last text message went on your headstone, what would it say?
3. Hanging Coffins of Echo Valley
Used by permission
The Igorot people of Sagada in the Philippines have a fascinating funeral practice: coffins, often made by their occupant, are hung from wooden poles driven into the side of the surrounding cliffs.
This purportedly keeps the coffins from animals and ground decay, while bringing them closer to “the world above.”
4. Banyan Tree & Crypt
Used by permission
A banyan tree has merged with an ancient crypt at the historic cemetery in Kalaupapa National Historical Park on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
5. Cemetery Wedding
Used by permission
One way to launch a marriage truly committed to “Til death do us part.“
6. Death Swallowed Up in Life
CC BY-SA 4.0 Used by permission / cropped slightly
Grave stone overcome by the powerful growth of a tree. Nice visual of Isaiah 25:8.
Read: Here’s the Complete List of Everything You Can Do With Your Body After You Die
7. Baldwin Tomb
Used by permission
There’s a fascinating story behind this “weeping angel” at the Baldwin Tomb in Milton, Connecticut. According to a faded headline in a blurry photo of a newspaper clipping, this represents “Perpetual Grief: The Mystery of the Nathan Baldwin Tomb.”
Unfortunately, photo is so small that the clipping is unreadable:
… which only deepens the mystery, eh?
Update 4/27/2020
Since posting this, I’ve learned a little more about the Baldwin tomb, the mystery, and the mystery of this mysterious article.
Rumor has it that the tomb is for Nathan Baldwin’s daughter Nathalie, who died at age 31. According to this story, Nathalie fell in love with a man but the family forbade her from marrying him. She mourned this tragic love until the day of her death, and so the weeping angel represents her grieving her lover.
If this tale is true, the tomb represents her father’s regret at depriving his daughter of the love of her life.
Another version of the story is that Nathalie did marry the lover, and her angelic figure depicts her weeping over the pain she caused her family.
Ultimately, no one knows the true story. All we do know is what is engraved on the monument:
Nathalie Baldwin Grinnell
daughter of Nathan A. and Maria L. Baldwin
Born Dec. 17, 1864 – Died July 10, 1895
There’s more… The mysterious tomb was designed and crafted by the famed sculptor Louis Amateis, who has done commissioned work for the US Capitol including busts of President Chester Arthur, the famed General Winfield Scott Hancock, Andrew Carnegie, and others.
How Nathan Baldwin from tiny Milton, CT, came into contact with a famous sculptor who lived in New York (over 100 miles away) and Washington, D.C. (300+ miles) is another mystery which may never be resolved.
8. Headstone with Creepy Face
Used by permission
This dude had himself memorialized all right. Who is every going to forget that face staring back at them?
Read: How We Describe Death & Dying: 200+ Euphemisms for Death
9. The Girl in Blue Gravestone
Used by permission.
The “Girl in Blue” is a piece of classic funeral folklore. According to sources at the time, two days before Christmas in 1933 a young woman dressed in blue arrived in the small town of Willoughby, Ohio by Greyhound bus.
According to MySendOff.com,
The woman walked the streets, greeting anyone she passed by with heartfelt warmth. As she approached the train station, an eastbound flyer was rushing nearby, bound for New York. Witnesses of the event say that the Girl in Blue dropped her suitcase and sprinted for the tracks. Suddenly, a glancing blow from the train sent her body hurtling through the air before she landed on the gravel siding.
Local authorities, upon inspecting the body, found absolutely no blood or visible wounds. Later, after a closer inspection, it was judged that she suffered a fractured skull from the impact of the train, and that was determined to be the cause of death
She carried no ID, and it was difficult to determine what caused her to rush towards the train – did she commit suicide? Was she rushing to catch the train? Was it something else?
Saddened by the mysterious death, the local funeral home took on the burial, donations paid for the cost of the headstone, and her funeral was attended by over 3,000 local residents.
It was not until 1993, sixty years after her death, that the enigmatic “Girl in Blue” was finally identified as Josephine “Sophie” Klimczak.
10. Sedlec Ossuary
Bones form a design at the Sedlec Ossuary at the Cemetery of the Church of All Saints. After the Black Death of the 14th century and the ensuing Hussite Wars, thousands were buried in the Sedlec abbey cemetery.
Later, a church was built over the cemetery, and in 1511, a half-blind monk was given the task of the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel. In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was charged with putting the bones in order. This yielded the macabre “sculptures” for which the ossuary is famous.
11. Where’s Waldo?
Found him!
Read: 40+ Funny Quotes for Cremation Urns
12. Smiling Skeleton Riding Shotgun
Used by permission
This skeleton must have called it a long, long time ago.
Buckle up.
Read: 19 of the Most Bizarre Funeral Photos You’ll Ever See
13. The Hill of Crosses
The Hill of Crosses is a unique collaboratory work of folk art and memorial tributes. Located in Lithuania outside of Siauliai City, the Hill has come to represent peaceful endurance of Lithuanian culture and heritage in the face of religious persecution, foreign control by the Russian Empire, the horrors of WWI and WWII, and later occupation by the Soviet Union.
The crosses apparently first appeared after the Lithuanian and Polish uprisings of 1831 and 1863: when relatives could not locate bodies of fallen rebel family members, they began erecting symbolic crosses in place of a former hill fort.
Read: 36 Hilarious Mortician Humor Memes
14. The Eternal Embrace
CC BY-SA 4.0 Used by permission / cropped slightly
The Lovers of Valdaro is famous archaeological find of two skeletons locked in an “eternal embrace.” The bones date back about 6,000 years, and are believed to be the remains of a young man and woman no more than about 20 years of age.
Read Next: Do Funeral Homes Take Pictures of the Deceased?
Daniel has been working in the funeral industry since 2010, speaking directly to grieving families as they made funeral arrangements.
He began researching and publishing funeral articles on this website as part of his role as product and marketing manager at Urns Northwest.
Having written hundreds of articles and growing the site to multiple millions of views per year, Daniel continues to write while providing editorial oversight for US Urns Online’s content team.