The spookiest week of the year brings us this 1844 broadside from Baltimore, which advertised the invention of a "Life-preserving Coffin in Doubtful Cases of Death".
Being buried alive was a common fear and fascination during this time; the same year this broadside was created, Edgar Allen Poe also responded to this public interest with the publication of "The Premature Burial" in The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. At the time, medical science offered few options for conclusively confirming death beyond waiting for bodies to decay, and reports of errors made fueled this fear.
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