Daily Photo – The Death Mask of Emma Williams

I had to take this photo hand-held as I didn’t have my tripod with me, which created a few challenges. The least of these was waiting for the queues to clear so I could get the shot I wanted. Like yesterday’s post, it’s another photo of a human mask, but on this occasion, the person featured has a more sinister background and a story that is a tiny bit disturbing.

Tasmania resident Emma Williams arrived in Melbourne with her husband in 1893. Due to the economic depression, there was little work available and when Emma fell pregnant, it only added to their financial hardship. Once the baby was born, her husband left her, taking the baby with him.

With no form of income, Emma turned to sex work to survive. A second child soon arrived, but its incessant crying didn’t create an appealing atmosphere for men wanting a quickie, and having another mouth to feed didn’t make things any easier.

Unsure what to do, she could neither give the child away nor have him adopted. In August of that year, a young boy was found in the Port Melbourne lagoon with a stone tied around his neck.

Emma was hanged in Melbourne Gaol at 10am on November 4, 1895, for drowning her son.