#32: Coin-Operated Automation of a Mortuary, 1900

Remember how we talked about Victorians being obsessed with automatons? Well, you might recall that they were also fascinated by death. They weren’t as squeamish about it as we are today, so they had no qualms about seeing it represented in everything from books to toys to photographs.

So, you see, an automaton toy of a mortuary existing isn’t that strange for the era. Sure, it sounds a bit too intense for our modern sensibilities, but we suspect the Victorians would feel similarly scandalized by our massive billboards with random ads. Times change, we guess…