Caitlin Doughty - Ask a Mortician

Caitlin Doughty has a channel called Ask a Mortician.  Doughty is a funeral home director from California.  At first glance on, you would think this channel is strictly about the funeral industry and death.  However, if you dive deeper, you will discover that she does dive into history.  She has videos on recreating Victorian Mourning Practices, Iconic Corpses and answers viewers burning questions like: What happened with the Donner Party? How bodies are handled in a mass death situation? and Can you freeze dry your corpse? 

The history videos are especially interesting and she and her team well research that material that's available.  She did a series on Iconic Corpses and explores the history behind some interesting corpses.  The videos are well put together and I've learned quite a bit from Caitlin's channel.

If you need something to pad out a lecture or use it as a writing prompt I recommend you give this channel a look up.  You can find something on this channel for your school or home school needs.

My Video Top Five Picks:  These are not in any specific order
The Lake that Never Gives Up Her Dead - I knew Lake Superior was cold, but I didn't know that it could preserve a corpse!  The Camloops story was scary and fascinating at the same time, I was especially freaked out with the fact there's a corpse that floats around the shipwreck following divers. She kayaks on Lake Superior with a relative of an Edmund Fitzgerald victim and they talk about the wreck and what happened.

The Massive LA Disaster You've Never Heard Of - This episode is about the dam failure in Los Angeles.  Caitlyn takes a trip to where the disaster happened.  She explains what lead to the failure and how the dead were taken care of.  She visits the original site of the dam and see what remains.  That part was the most fascinating of the video: seeing the remains of the dam.

Oven Crypts of New Orleans  - The oven crypts of New Orleans are a hold over from their time as a French/Spanish colony.  Then she explores what makes American Burial traditions different in comparison.  She explains the history of the oven crypts and how they work.  It's the ultimate in reusable burial.  This was the first time I have heard of oven crypts.

Visiting Hawaii's Tragic and Remote Leprosy Colony - I heard about this colony because there was a lighthouse on the Island and now I learned more about this colony.  She takes the time to explain how the colony was set up, why it was set up, and what happened to it's people as well as the survivors.  It is a sad but fascinating history.

Iconic Corpse: 93 Years of Vladimir Lenin - An earlier video of hers that details the preservation of the corpse of Vladimir Lenin.  It is crazy the amount of preservation and studies that went into keeping the corpse of Vladimir Lenin pristine.  The body that's on display is no longer the real Lenin.  That is most fascinating thing about this video: is that it is not really Lenin.

Caitlin's also an author, she has written several books on death.  You can check out her Amazon Author page here.  You can get her books in physical form, kindle form, and audiobooks.