This is part four of a series called Connecting the Circle: conversations on death and dying with the people who see it every day. My guest is Genevieve Keeney Vasquez, President and CEO of the National Museum of Funeral History. In this episode we'll discuss Keeney Vasquez's career as a palliative nurse, a funeral director and army medical officer.

In this episode James Brown and Keeney Vasquez dig deeper into the history of funerals in America, including turning points such as the Civil War and the introduction of embalming. Surgeons during the Civil War developed embalming to preserve dead bodies for transportation and decontamination. Genevieve Keeney Vasquez explains how the profession of embalming originated, with surgeons training laypeople in the 19th century. In the Civil War era, injured soldiers were placed in heavy metal coffins called Fiske coffins if their circulatory system was compromised, and some were buried in unmarked graves.

Death education and involving children in funeral processes. (1:28)

Death education and funeral directing. (5:57)

The history of funerals and embalming during the Civil War. (11:00)

Civil War soldiers' funerals and embalming practices. (18:11)

Funeral history and embalming techniques. (22:43)

Funeral traditions and the origins of "graveyard shift". (28:18)

Funeral traditions and caregiving responsibilities. (33:28)

Part One: She Wanted To See A Dead Body

Part Two: How I became a funeral director

Part Three: Where people are dying and no one admits it

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