As mentioned above, there is a non-profit society taking Bereavement photos of infants who die near birth. It still happens but simply isn't as prevalent, as Kyrila said. There are also pictures from 1939 and other more recent years. What started in the Victorian era sparked a fire, the embers of which still glow today. The book I borrowed from the library today mentions that the practice started by at least 1840, perhaps earlier.
There is also a quick poem that I found concerning Post-mortem photography:
Secure the Shadow, Ere the Substance Fade,
Let Nature imitate what Nature Made
This poem was one of photography's earliest cliches, and some of you know how much I love cliches
. It obviously predates George Eastman's (of Eastman Kodak) cliche of "you push the button, we do the rest."
The aforementioned book comments on the current status of Post-mortem photography. It "is a photographic activity, like the erotica produced in middle-class homes by married couples, that many privately practice but seldom circulate outside the trusted circle of close friends and relatives." It also says "[Though it is] sometimes thought to be an bizarre Victorian custom, photographing corpses has been and continues to be an important, if not
common occurrence in American life."
As a result, our previous postulates of its near extinction were not as correct as we might have thought. Though we might find it a proscribed subject, some people continue to do it now, in the 21st century.
Who would have thunk that while watching
The Others? Anyway, I suggest looking at the linked site above. It shows some pretty current photos that are just as haunting as the ones from the Victorian Era.
Also, does the old photographic cliche sound like an incantation to anyone else besides me?