Memento Mori - the term meaning "Remember Thy Death"
There's a reference book available, titled:
"Memento Mori: Death and Photography in Nineteenth Century America" - by Reinhold
Scouts Out!
St. George, was the term actually used at the time for the photographs, or was it coined just for the book?
My knowledge of the context of the term was it was used by men training for or going into battle from far more ancient times. "'Memento Mori,' remember death, it is with you always, sitting at your shoulder. It may be your opponent, it may be you, but it is there." It would be interesting for me to know about its use in our American West.
Edit:
I did a Google search on Memento Mori photography. It came back with this as one of the links:
http://cmp1.ucr.edu/terminals/memento_mori/MEMENTO MORI:
DEATH AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA
by
Dan Meinwald
More:
A site which has over 450 Memento Mori photographs as well as a large number of death masks (including those of Robert E. Lee, William Sherman, and Ulysses S. Grant) can be found at
http://thanatos.net/Thanks,
AnnieLee