"Mr. Nelson came for me and my wife to come to his house to see to laying a little Negro boy who had died on his cooling board because no one would go for fear of taking the disease."
--Notes in the handwriting of Thomas Frye - 1860
"The cooling board was a perforated wooden platform on which a dead body would be temporarily stored and prepared for a funeral. Ice was placed beneath it to keep the body chilled, slowing the decomposition process. Holes in the cooling board allowed blood and other fluids to drain from the body. It could also be used to display the body for a viewing if the casket was not delivered in time. Metal embalming tables replaced cooling boards as modern refrigeration became available." From Wikipedia
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