Why Are We Embalmed? The History Behind an American Custom
Reviewed by Everendium Editorial Team · Last reviewed August 24, 2026
Quick answer
Embalming became widespread in the United States largely due to the Civil War, when soldiers died far from home and families wanted their bodies preserved for the journey back for burial. The practice was further popularized by the widely attended public viewing of Abraham Lincoln's body during a multi-city funeral train tour in 1865, which introduced embalming to millions of Americans for the first time. What began as a wartime and presidential exception gradually became a common funeral custom over the following decades.
Embalming is common enough in American funeral practice today that few people stop to ask where the custom actually came from — but its origin is specific, relatively recent, and tied directly to a particular moment in American history.
Rare before the Civil War
Before the mid-1800s, embalming was largely unknown to ordinary Americans. It existed in limited medical and experimental settings, but wasn’t part of typical funeral practice — most burials happened quickly, close to home, without any need for extended preservation.
A wartime logistical problem
The Civil War changed this rapidly. For the first time, enormous numbers of soldiers were dying far from their families, who wanted bodies brought home for burial rather than buried near distant battlefields. This created a genuinely new logistical challenge: preserving a body well enough to survive a journey that could take days or longer. Embalmers set up practices near battlefields specifically to meet this demand, embalming soldiers so families could receive and bury them at home.
Lincoln’s funeral tour
The event that likely did more than any other to introduce embalming to the broader American public was Abraham Lincoln’s own funeral in 1865. His body was embalmed and carried on an extensive, multi-city funeral train tour, allowing enormous crowds to view his remains in city after city along the route. For many Americans, this was their first direct exposure to a well-preserved body displayed publicly — a striking, high-profile example that helped move embalming from a wartime necessity toward something more broadly recognized and, gradually, requested.
From wartime exception to common custom
In the decades following the war, embalming gradually shifted from an emergency wartime practice into a standard part of American funeral service, adopted by an emerging funeral industry that built services around it. What started as a practical solution to a specific, urgent problem became, over time, a widely expected part of the funeral process for many American families.
Why this history still matters today
Understanding this origin helps explain something that surprises many people: embalming isn’t a universal requirement rooted in law or hygiene necessity — it’s a specific American custom with a specific historical starting point. That’s part of why it isn’t legally required in most circumstances today, and why families can reasonably choose an alternative like refrigeration without going against some deeper, ancient tradition — the tradition itself is younger than many assume.
Historical details are presented at a general level - specific accounts and dates can vary across historical sources.
Frequently asked questions
Was embalming common before the Civil War?+
No - embalming was rare and largely unknown to most Americans before the war. It existed in limited medical and experimental contexts, but was not part of ordinary funeral practice.
Why did the Civil War change this?+
Large numbers of soldiers died far from home, and families wanted bodies preserved well enough to survive the journey back for burial - a genuinely new logistical problem at a scale the country hadn't faced before, which created real demand for embalming services near battlefields.
How did Lincoln's funeral affect embalming's popularity?+
Abraham Lincoln's body was embalmed and displayed during an extensive multi-city funeral train tour in 1865, allowing an enormous number of Americans to view a well-preserved body publicly, many for the first time - this high-profile example helped introduce and normalize the practice far beyond its wartime origins.
Is embalming still done for the same reasons today?+
Not exactly - today embalming is typically chosen to allow a viewing or to provide extra time before a service, rather than for long-distance wartime transport specifically, though the underlying idea of temporarily preserving a body for practical reasons traces directly back to this same origin.
Sources
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