A memorial card, also known as a funeral card, a death card, or an In Memoriam card, is a commemorative keepsake often distributed at funerals or memorials and kept as a remembrance of the deceased. The cards usually include basic information about the person—name, birth and death dates, dates of other important life events such as baptism or ordination—a prayer or poem, and an image either of the person or of Jesus or Mary. Memorial cards first appeared... in England in the 1840s and were quickly adopted in the United States as well. They serve both a practical purpose in recording a death and a spiritual-emotional purpose in celebrating the lives of the deceased and channeling the grief of those still alive. In Catholic tradition, memorial cards fill a similar role to holy cards, which feature saints and can commemorate pilgrimages, baptism, marriage, feast days, religious instruction, or devotion to a particular saint.

Sources:

Crespo-Fernández, Eliecer. “Beyond Pain and Sorrow: Dysphemistic Use in Wartime Funeral Cards.” Death Studies, September 2024, 1–11. doi:10.1080/07481187.2024.2404937.

"'So Once Were We': Death in Early America." William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. 2012. https://clements.umich.edu/exhibit/death-in-early-america.