Back   Updated June 27, 2011 About Us The Beginning This collection of post-mortem photography has had an online presence, in one form or another, dating back to 1999, making The Thanatos Archive the original post-mortem photography resource of its kind online! What started out as a small group of collectors sharing their images has evolved into one of the premier and legitimate post-mortem and mourning photography Archives in the world. We search for, purchase, scan, and professionally archive all of our own images. Thanatos.net In 2002, the domain Thanatos.net was acquired and has been our permanent home ever since. At that time, the website was a hotbed of image sharing; by signing an electronic agreement of ownership, collectors were able to upload their own post-mortem photographs, and they did so, en masse. The early Archive was a collection of photographs owned by ourselves and others, with the majority of the images having been uploaded by our members. If we had decided to continue in that manner, we estimate we would have been hosting well over 30,000 images by 2011! However, two things soon became apparent: despite signing the electronic ownership waiver, there was no possible way to verify that the images being uploaded were owned by the person doing the uploading. While we have never received a single complaint about using photos without permission, we decided that in order to be a respectable and legitimate post-mortem resource, and out of respect for our fellow collectors, we needed to take more control over what was being allowed on our website. In 2005, member uploading was disabled. The Next Stage For nearly a decade, from 1999 to 2007, access to our photos was 100% free for everybody. In early 2007, it was necessary to make several important changes. The rising costs of operating and maintaining a free online presence were putting a burden on our number one goal, acquiring and preserving original post-mortem photography. We had several choices: 1. Stop acquiring original images, and allow the site to revert back to an unseemly free-for-all of unchecked image sharing; 2. Have a free site supported by annoying advertisements; 3. Remove our website completely; 4. Continue to acquire images and continue to share them with others online. The choice was easy - we decided on option 4. After eight years of free access, The Thanatos Archive was converted to a member-supported, members only resource in April 2007. Since that time, with the exception of a few special cases, the only images added to this online archive are images acquired by the Archive and found exclusively in our personal collection. While there are still some old member uploads on the site, they have been reduced considerably, and remain mostly as a member "bonus", and as a reminder of this site's beginnings, with member comments dating back nearly nine years! All of the older uploads remaining on the website remain with the permission of their presumed original owners. While the total number of images on the site (1300+ as of June 2011) is not as high as it would have been if we continued a free-for-all format, we believe in image quality over quantity, and we know that those who truly appreciate the art of post-mortem photography feel the same way! 2011 Today, in our  twelfth year of existence, The Thanatos Archive is a respected post-mortem photography resource and thriving community, with many devoted members. Our photos have been in books and magazines, television, and even movies. New, exclusive, high quality post-mortem and mourning photos and enlargements are being acquired and added to our site and member forum on a regular basis. Please visit our membership section for more details or to become an Archive member! Notice! If you see our uncredited images anywhere outside of this domain, the odds are extremely high that they are being used without our permission by photo thieves. Our photos are intended for our members only and are only allowed to be posted outside of this domain without special permission to do so. If you see one of our images on another website and there is no mention of The Thanatos Archive or a link back to us, you're probably on a pirate / leech site and not a real archive. A pirate site exists by stealing photos from other sources without permission to do so and with no investment of their own in original images. Please take a minute to issue a complaint with the webmaster of the website you found the images on.