"The Manner of Dissecting the Pestilentiall Body," 1666

"The Manner of Dissecting the Pestilentiall Body," 1666.

Click on image to see larger, more detailed version.

Via The William Eamon blog.

"Representing the Last Stage of Mental & Bodily Exhaustion from Onanism or Self-pollution," 1845

Representing the last stage of mental & bodily exhaustion from Onanism or Self-pollution, coloured engraving from The Secret Companion, a medical work on onanism or self-pollution, with the best mode of treatment in all cases of nervous and sexual debility, impotency, etc by R. J. Brodie, 1845, Plate 2. From the Wellcome Library, London

Via darkoisdorko.tumblr.

Tonight at Observatory! The Amazing Zoe Beloff and "Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing

Tonight at Observatory, the inimitable Zoe Beloff!

Full details below. Hope very much to see you there!

Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer: An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Zoe Beloff
Date: Monday, November 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

“Adventures of a Dreamer” is a hand-drawn prototype for a comic book, that appears to have been created by Albert Grass, founder of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1930’s. It seems possible that he originally intended “The Dreamer ” to be hero in the mold of “The Spirit”, or even “Superman” with extraordinary powers but this conception quickly changed. By episode three “The Dreamer” looses his ability to fly, landing on the ground with a loud “ouch!”. He remains earthbound and the work becomes a more serious investigation into his own psychic life.

Many of Albert Grass’ anxieties speak directly to us today. He suffered the aftereffects of a brutal war. He worried about his neighbors being evicted. He felt the guilt of an artist who feels he should be more deeply engaged in a struggle for social justice. Previously unpublished, this facsimile edition makes available for the first time what appears to be an early attempt to use the language of the comic book to graphically manifest the unconscious.

Zoe Beloff is an artist who elides the roles of archivist and creator. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Known for her multimedia installations incorporating film and video, Beloff aims to connect the present with the past and to call into question the assumed boundaries between historical fact and creative interpretation. In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, Beloff resurrected the world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder, Albert Grass. Beloff’s publications include The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle and The Somnambulists: A Compendium of Source Material.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can find out more about Zoe Beloff and her work by clicking here. You can find out more about Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer--and purchase a copy!--by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Image found here.

Bookcover, "A Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons..." 1820

A lovely bookcover, circa 1820, for the headily titled A treatise on adulterations of food and culinary poisons : exhibiting the fraudulent sophistications of bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, tea, coffee, cream, confectionery, vinegar, mustard, pepper, cheese, olive oil, pickles and other articles employed in domestic economy ; and methods of detecting them, by Friedrich Christian Accum.

You can find out more about this book by clicking here. Image via The Chemical Heritage Foundation's Flickr Site. Found via Wunderkammer blog.

Artist Zoe Beloff Returns to Observatory with "Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing, Monday, November 29th

Next Monday, November 29th, Morbid Anatomy favorite artist Zoe Beloff--she of the unforgettable hysteria theaters and last years installation at the Coney Island Musuem on the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society--will be returning to Observatory to deliver an illustrated lecture based on her newest publication Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer. Books will also be available for sale and signing.

Images from said publication above; full details below. Hope to see you there!

Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer: An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Zoe Beloff
Date: Monday, November 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

“Adventures of a Dreamer” is a hand-drawn prototype for a comic book, that appears to have been created by Albert Grass, founder of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1930’s. It seems possible that he originally intended “The Dreamer ” to be hero in the mold of “The Spirit”, or even “Superman” with extraordinary powers but this conception quickly changed. By episode three “The Dreamer” looses his ability to fly, landing on the ground with a loud “ouch!”. He remains earthbound and the work becomes a more serious investigation into his own psychic life.

Many of Albert Grass’ anxieties speak directly to us today. He suffered the aftereffects of a brutal war. He worried about his neighbors being evicted. He felt the guilt of an artist who feels he should be more deeply engaged in a struggle for social justice. Previously unpublished, this facsimile edition makes available for the first time what appears to be an early attempt to use the language of the comic book to graphically manifest the unconscious.

Zoe Beloff is an artist who elides the roles of archivist and creator. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Known for her multimedia installations incorporating film and video, Beloff aims to connect the present with the past and to call into question the assumed boundaries between historical fact and creative interpretation. In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, Beloff resurrected the world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder, Albert Grass. Beloff’s publications include The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle and The Somnambulists: A Compendium of Source Material.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can find out more about Zoe Beloff and her work by clicking here. You can find out more about Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer--and purchase a copy!--by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Help Keep "Oddities" on the Air!

"Oddities," Morbid Anatomy's new favorite television program, is in danger! Below is a plea from Mike Zohn, co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, the antique shop which is at the center of this new and wonderful Discovery Channel reality show:

Fans of Oddities...We need your help.....First, thank you for all the kind words and all. We appreciate all of it. It seems that for some reason Discovery has not run any TV ads for our show. Our ratings have been OK, but most people don't know there are 2 episodes back to back...and many more don't even know about the show. Seems it might be hard to build an audience and a following without some TV advertising......

So, what can you do to help?

• You can watch! Oddities airs on the Discovery Channel on Thursday nights, from 8-9 PM; At 8:00 PM, catch a screening of last week's episode; stay tuned for a new episode at 8:30.
• Lodge a complaint to Discovery Channel asking for commercials and better promotion! You can do so (as I just did!) by clicking here.
• Spread the word; if you like the show, tell your friends!
• "Friend" them on Facebook! This is also a great way to keep apprised of the latest "Oddities" and shop information. You can find them on Facebook by clicking here.
• Come to our "Oddities" screening party on December 9th at 8:00 PM! You can find out more details about that by clicking here or here.

Thanks everyone for your help in saving this new and wonderful television show!

Upcoming Observatory Double Feature "Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante" and the Music of Helen Gillet, Monday, November 22

Next Monday at Observatory, Paradiso Contapasso presents a fantastic double feature: the haunting cello music of New Orleans-based Helen Gillet followed by an illustrated lecture about Dante's trip to hell and back by medievalist Nicola Masciandaro. All for just $5.

The music begins at 7 and the lecture at 8.

Full details below; hope to see you there!

A Paradiso Contapasso Double Feature:
Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante and the Music of Helen Gillet
An illustrated lecture with professor of medieval literature Nicola Masciandaro preceded by the a performance by Helen Gillet
Date: Monday, November 22
Time: 7:00 for music; 8:00 for lecture
Admission to both: $5

Everyone knows that Dante went to hell and back. “Non vedi tu come egli ha la barba crespa e il color bruno per lo caldo e per lo fummo che è là giù?” [Do you not see how his beard is crisped and his color browned by the heat and smoke that this there below?], a lady is reported by Boccaccio to have said upon seeing the poet in Verona.

The underworld is written all over the author’s image. In many circles, from video game consoles to college lecture halls, the Divine Comedy is virtually synonymous with Inferno. The “Paradiso Contrapasso” concept presents a liberation from this stygian fixation. A contamination of paradise with the essential principal of divine punishment? A saturation of eternal torment with celestial, empyreal bliss? Or maybe something more radical than either. The damnation and perdition of the very idea of paradise? Or a penalty that would itself comprise it?

The word paradise, from ancient Persian, signifies an enclosed or walled garden. The divine punishment of paradise might then be imagined as the annihilation of its constitutive boundary, an exposure of the garden to what is beyond it. Does paradise disappear? Or does everything become a paradise?

Tonight’s lecture will take this theme as an invitation to read Dante as a radically paradisical poet, one for whom the original and ultimate state of being is never somewhere else, before or after, but is something that must always, and precisely in its absence, always be here.

Nicola Masciandaro is Associate Professor of English at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and a specialist in medieval literature.

To find out more about the lecture, click here; to find out more about the music of Helen Gillet, click here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Apparatus for Taking Composite Photographs of Skulls, Late 19th/Early 20th C?

Apparatus for Taking Composite Photographs of Skulls.

From the Otis Historical Archives Nat'l Museum of Health & Medicine Flickr set; click here to see more.

Reading and Book Signing: "Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children," Stanley Burns of the Burns Archive

Tonight, at the Merchant's House Museum, as part of the exhibition “Memento Mori: The Birth and Resurrection of Postmortem Photography" blogged about recently here:

Wednesday, November 17, 7 p.m.
Reading: Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children
Merchant's House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, New York, NY 10003
The Museum is located between Lafayette Street and Bowery
Free, space is limited.

Dr. Stanley Burns of The Burns Archive will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today, and sign copies of his latest book in the renowned Sleeping Beauty series. A reception to meet the author will follow.

To RSVP Call 212-777-1089

To read more about postmortem photography at The Burns Archive click here.

Stay tunes for a similar event Morbid Anatomy Presents event at Observatory sometime in the new year!

Image: ©2010 The Burns Archive, found here.

5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest, Tuesday, December 7, The Bell House, Brooklyn

This just announced: the 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest is scheduled (December 7th at the Bell House) and is seeking contestants! Eligible entries include (in the words of thepress release) "taxidermy (bought, found, or homemade), biological oddities, articulated skeletons, skulls, jarred specimens—and beyond, way beyond..."

To add to the excitement, this year, our friend Mike Zohn--Obscura Antiques and Oddities co-proprietor, new reality show celebrity, and 2007's Carnivorous Nights champion will be a judge and speaker.

Full details follow; so enter away, and hope to see you there, either on stage or in the audience!

The Secret Science Club's 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest
Date: Tuesday, December 7
Time: 8 PM
Location: The Bell House
(149 7th St., between 2nd and 3rd avenues in Gowanus, Brooklyn)

The The beasts are back!
Calling all science geeks, nature freaks, and rogue geniuses!

Your stuffed squirrel got game? Got a beaver in your brownstone? Bring your beloved beast to the Bell House and enter it to win at the 5th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest.

Eligible for prizes: Taxidermy (bought, found, or homemade), biological oddities, articulated skeletons, skulls, jarred specimens—and beyond, way beyond

Plus!
--Spectators are invited to cheer on their favorite specimens
--Groove to taxidermy-inspired tunes & video
--Imbibe ferocious specialty drinks!
--Prizes will be awarded by our panel of savage taxidermy enthusiasts!

Entrants: Contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com to pre-register. Share your taxidermy (and its tale) with the world!

Don't miss this beastly event on Tuesday, December 7, 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

More here. The image you see above is the Pope Mouse by Mouse Angel/Jeanie M. You can purchase your very own Pope Mouse--or Angel, or Punker Rocker, or Mousealope, or Hamlet (!) at The Morbid Anatomy Library; click here or email me here for details.

Image credit: The wonderful blog Crappy Taxidermy.

'The Night of the Hunter' New Deluxe Criterion Edition

News alert! Just in time for Christmas, Criterion--God bless them--has released a deluxe, 2-DVD edition of Charles Laughton's 1955 unparalleled masterwork--and Morbid Anatomy film favorite--The Night of the Hunter.

Director Charles Laughton memorably and accurately described The Night of the Hunter as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale," and that it is. Starring film-noir bad boy Robert Mitchum in a much imitated performance as an evil preacher with "love" and "hate" tattooed on his knuckles (see top image), a slightly depressing Shelley Winters, and a late-career star turn by silent film mega-star Lilian Gish (see bottom image), the films is by turns hallucinatory, menacing, and darkly comic, but always lyrically beautiful at the same time. It is truly its own thing entirely; I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

The new Criterion edition supplements the film itself with an archival interview with the film's cinematographer Stanley Cortez, a 2 1/2-hour making-of documentary, and interviews with a variety of critics and scholars.

To read a really wonderful article about the history of this remarkable, influential, and idiosyncratic film, click here. Click here to purchase the Criterion Edition of Night of the Hunter from Amazon.com. To purchase same in Blu-ray, click here.

Thanks so much, Megan, for letting me know about this!!

Image credits: Image one, from the LA Times article "A Second Look: 'The Night of the Hunter'"; other images from The Horror Digest.

An Autumnal Interlude: The Inimitable Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx

We in New York have been enjoying the last unseasonably warm days of a spectacular autumn. In my opinion, there is simply no better place to enjoy the autumn colors in the area than in the "400 acres of rolling lawns, spectacular trees and impressive memorials" that comprise the epic Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

You can find out more about this fantastic cemetery--founded in 1863--by clicking here. You can see more photos--all of which I took on a visit my boyfriend and I made last Sunday--by clicking here, and can see larger version by clicking on the images.

"Oddities” Marathon and Party, Observatory, December 9th, 8:00 PM

We at Morbid Anatomy are very very excited to announce an upcoming viewing party for our new favorite television series, "Oddities," which you might recall from this flurry of recent posts (1, 2, 3).

For those who have not yet heard about this somewhat surprising manifestation of a burgeoning popular interest in curiosities and the macabre: "Oddities," which premiered a few weeks ago, is a new Discovery Channel-based reality show documenting the day to day life of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Morbid Anatomy's favorite purveyor of curious artifacts in New York's East Village. The series "stars" friends, proprietors, and Observatory regulars Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn, as well as old friend Ryan Mathew, and follows their adventures and travails as they pursue artifacts for the shop, research provenance and history of objects, and interact with their collector clientèle.

The "Oddities” Marathon and Party event--which will take place on Thursday, December 9th at Observatory--will feature a three episode marathon of the program, special drinks, a DJed after party, and prizes and give-ways throughout the night. Members of the "cast" will also be available for questions and comments.

You can see some clips (recommended!) and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here.

Full details follow. Very much hope to see you there!

"Oddities” Marathon and Party
A three-episode marathon of the new television series Oddities, with give-aways, special drinks, surprise guests, and after party
Date: Thursday, December 9
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

On Thursday, December 9, you are cordially invited to join Morbid Anatomy and Observatory as we celebrate the new television series based on our favorite purveyor of curious and amazing artifacts, Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York City’s East village.

The evenings festivities will include–as a special treat for those of us without cable–a screening of the first three episodes of Oddities, which will reveal, to the discerning eye, an assortment of familiar Observatory faces, including former lecturers Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn as well as a variety of members of the wider Observatory community. There will also be special drinks, a DJed after party, surprise guests, and prizes and give-ways throughout the night. Members of the cast will also be available for questions and comments.

To find out more about the show, check out http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/oddities.

Hope very much to see you there!

To find out more about the event, click here. You can see some clips and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Two Upcoming Events at the Hunterian Museum in London

I have just been alerted to two wonderful looking events at the Hunterian Museum in London by Jane Hughes, head of learning and access; Full details follow; if you're in London, be sure to check out either or both!

The Hunterian After Dark
Date: Friday, November 12th
Time: 6-9 PM
Admission: Free, with pay bar

A rare late-night opening of the museum and a chance to find out about the role of the College in modern surgical training. Enjoy a drink among the historical specimens collected by John Hunter and other eminent surgeons of the 18th and 19th centuries. Also available is an opportunity to tour the new Eagle Project teaching suite, find out about dissection at the College and try your hand at ‘keyhole’ surgery techniques and surgical suturing.

Gorgets and Bistouries: An Evening Encounter
Date: Thursday, December 2
Time: 7-9pm
Admission: £8, includes a glass of wine or soft drink

Artist and musician Matthew Robins and photographic artist, Elaine Duigenan collaborate to bring you a magical encounter with ‘instruments’ – both the musical and surgical. Through words, song, live animation and shadow play they will bring you an unforgettable performance in the realm of ‘The Dreadful and The Divine’.

Enjoy an atmospheric late view of the Hunterian Museum and the exhibition and following in the vein of the moving image, create your own zoetrope inspired by Matthew’s unique art.

Numbers are limited so booking is essential on 020 7869 6560

See more of Matthew's work at www.sadlucy.com and Elaine's work at www.elaineduigenan.com

To find out more about these events, click here and here, respectively. To see some other recent posts about Elaine Duigenan's work on Morbid Anatomy, click here and here.

"Come and See: The Amsterdam Anatomical Collection Dissected," Lecture and Book Signing with with Dr. Laurens de Rooy, Curator of the Museum Vrolik

This Thursday at 8:00 PM at Observatory, please join Morbid Anatomy and curator Dr. Laurens de Rooy for a highly-illustrated ‘dissection’ of the spectacular and fascinating Amsterdam-based Vrolik Anatomical Museum, a specimen of which is pictured above. Copies of the beautiful and lavishly illustrated new book about the collection--entitled Forces of Form-- will also be available for sale and signing.

Full details below; very much hope to see you there!

Come and See: The Amsterdam Anatomical Collection Dissected
An illustrated lecture and book signing with Dr. Laurens de Rooy, Curator of the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam
Date: Thursday, November 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

Books will be available for sale and signing.

Two skeletons of dwarfs, rare Siamese twins, cyclops and sirens, dozens of pathologically deformed bones, the giant skull of a grown man with hydrocephalus, the skeleton of the lion once owned by king Louis Napoleon, as well as the organs of a babirusa, Tasmanian devil and tree kangaroo – rare animals that died in the Amsterdam zoo ‘Artis’ shortly before their dissection.

Counting more than five thousand preparations and specimens, the Museum Vrolikianum, the private collection of father Gerard (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), was an amazing object of interest one hundred and fifty years ago. In the 1840s and 50s this museum, established in Gerard’s stately mansion on the river Amstel, grew into a famous collection that attracted admiring scientists from both the Netherlands and abroad.

After the Vrolik era, the museum was expanded with new collections by succeeding anatomists. What motivated the Vroliks and their successors to collect all these anatomical specimens, skulls, skeletons, and monstrosities? were did their material come from? How did these collections help to built up their views on the origins of life forms?

Since 1984 the museum is located in the academic Hospital of the University of Amsterdam. Recently the museum collections were portrayed by the photographer Hans van den Bogaard for the book Forces of Form. These images will form an essential part in this talk, a ‘dissection’ of the Amsterdam anatomical collection.

Dr. Laurens de Rooy (b. 1974) works as a curator of the Museum Vrolik in the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He studie Medical Biology, specializing in the history of science and museology. during his internship he researched the collection of father and son Vrolik. In 2009 he obtained his PhD in medical history.

You can find out more about theis event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

33 Plates of Morbid Anatomy Elucidating Dr. Bright's Works, 1829, The British Museum

33 Plates of Morbid anatomy Ellucidating Dr. Bright's Works
Published in London, 1829
British XVIIIc Mounted Atlas
Paper; stipple ; mezzotint; hand-coloured
Published by Longman; Prints made by William Say

Inscriptions: Lettered within image with letters for identification, and: "Plate/ Drawn by F.R.Say/ Engraved by W.Say/ London Published July 1. 1829, by Longman, Rees, Orme & Brown." Stamped with Say's blind stamp.

Found on the British Museum website; to find out more--and see more images!--click here.

"Lantern Slides: Looking Glass through History" Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, Saturday November 13

Next Saturday, November 13th, join American Museum of Natural History archivist (and friend of Morbid Anatomy) Barbara Mathé for an illustrated presentation about the museum's vast collection of magic lantern slides as part of the Margaret Mead Festival. Entitled "Lantern Slides: Looking Glass through History," the presentation will, in the words of the press release, "share the behind-the-scenes history of the lantern slides, photographs of Museum employees painting the original slides, and [detail] the fascinating story of their journey from AMNH to a basement in Staten Island and back again."

Having been so fortunate as to be allowed a tiny peek at the riches of the archives of AMNH--where I once had the honor of working--I simply cannot wait for this presentation and the opportunity to find out more about this seriously incredible collection!

Full details follow; hope very much to see you there!

Lantern Slides: Looking Glass through History
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
November 13, 2010 | 1:30 pm
Kaufmann Theater
$12 General admission / $10 Members, students, seniors

Join the Mead for an urban dig through the American Museum of Natural History’s library archives. Once the foundation of a long-running and wildly popular series of lectures by zoologist and AMNH founder Albert Bickmore, the Museum’s collection of more than 40,000 glass lantern slides were used as an educational tool starting in the late 1800s and were later circulated throughout New York City’s public school system. Often hand-colored these slides depict myriad subjects, such as landscapes, scientific specimens, and field expeditions captured around the world by the Museum’s own scientists. In celebration of the recovery of about 20,000 of these rare artifacts, the Festival presents the opportunity to view these unique historical documents and stunning works of art through the eyes of in-house archivist Barbara Mathé. She will share the behind-the-scenes history of the lantern slides, photographs of Museum employees painting the original slides, and the fascinating story of their journey from AMNH to a basement in Staten Island and back again. Historian Constance Areson Clarke and media historian Alison Griffiths will also be on hand to discuss the wider history of lantern slides and educational media.

Co-presented by International Center of Photography and the New York Stereoscopic Society.

For more information--and to find out about other offerings of this year's Mead festival--go to amnh.org/mead.

Oddities, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Discovery Channel, Premiere Report

Oddities--the previously discussed reality show [sic] based on my favorite store in the world, Obscura Antiques and Oddities--premiered last night on The Discovery Channel. I am very happy to report that I actually quite liked the show, which came to me as some surprise as I am, in general, no fan reality television. Oddites is actually a television show I would--and will!--watch, and I am so proud of all my friends whose knowledgeable, thoughtful, and non-histrionic participation is elevating it well above the usual reality television fare!

You can view my favorite clip from last night's episode--which stars a very charismatic playwright and Obscura regular named Edgar and his encounter with a straitjacket--by clicking here. Note: you will have to sit through an obligatory commercial to get to the good stuff, but it is definitely worth it.

Oddities will be airing Thursday nights at 8:00 PM on the Discovery Channel; I highly highly highly recommend you find a way to check it out (I surely will be...). You can find out more--and view many more clips!--on the Oddities home page (pictured above) by clicking here.

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Saturday, November 6, 12-6 PM

This Saturday, November 6, the Morbid Anatomy Library--pictured above--will be open to the public from 12 until 6 PM. So feel free to stop by for a visit, a perusal of the new acquisitions, and perhaps even a touch of seltzer.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here. To take a vicarious tour of the collection via Newsweek, click here, and via Rocketboom media, click here.

"Dermographisme - Démence précoce catatonique," Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière, Paris, 1904

Dermographisme [aka dermographism, dermatographismm or "skin writing] - Démence précoce catatonique, from Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière, Paris, 1904.

From the Wellcome Collection Skin exhibition website (which featured this image):

Démence Précoce Catatonique Dermographisme. L Trepsat, 1893. From 'Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière', 1904.

During the second hald of the 19th century, the belief spread that the phenomenon of dermatographism (or 'dermographism', or 'skin writing') was linked to hysteria and other mental or nervous disorders. Here a female patient at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris has had her diagnosis 'Démence précoce' (dementia praecox) 'written' on her back.

Click on image to see larger version.

Via Rrosehobart Tumblr.

"Science and Curiosities at the Court of Versailles," Through February 2011

Thanks so much to my friend Megan for letting me know about the super exciting looking exhibition that will be on view at Versailles Palace in France through February of next year.

The show--entitled "Science and Curiosities at the Court of Versailles"--will tell the story of scientific inquiry, rational amusement, and natural and artificial curiosities at the grand royal court of Versailles. To illustrate this worthy topic, the exhibition will gather and display--for the first time ever--a variety of artifacts that once comprised part of the monolithic "royal collection" and are now--post French Revolution and disciplinary divides--housed in a variety of anatomical, anthropological, natural historical, and art museums around France.

The artifacts will reveal "a new, unexpected face of Versailles as a place of scientific inquiry in its most various forms," trace the stories of the relationship between natural philosophers and the royal court, and bring "together works and instruments from the old royal collections, spectacular achievements of beauty and intelligence, for the first time."

Good stuff!

Here is the full description from the website:

[Science and Curiosities at the Court of Versailles] reveals a new, unexpected face of Versailles as a place of scientific inquiry in its most various forms: the Hall of Mirrors electricity experiment, Marley Machine on the banks of the Seine, burning mirror solar power demonstration, etc. It brings together works and instruments from the old royal collections, spectacular achievements of beauty and intelligence, for the first time.

Versailles is the place where control over science was exercised. At the urging of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's "prime minister", the royal authority became aware of the benefits of scientific research. In 1666 Colbert founded the Academy of Science, establishing a new contract between the government and scientists. Many "natural philosophers", as they were known at the time, including some of the most famous, assiduously frequented the Court as physicians, army engineers, tutors, etc. The physicists Benjamin Franklin and Abbot Nollet compared their theories in front of the king and the encyclopaedists Diderot and D’Alembert met in the office of Dr. Quesnay, physician to Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's favourite. Some courtiers were real experts.

The Château de Versailles offered many research resources. Anatomists and zoologists could study the menagerie's ostriches, pelicans, rhinoceroses and other rare animals, botanists and agronomists the plants on the grounds of the Trianon and "hippiatrists", the forerunners to veterinarians, the horses in the Grand Stables.

Educators developed new teaching methods using cutting-edge tools for the royal children and the kings' personal practice. While Louis XIV considered himself a protector of the arts and sciences without practicing them, his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, became true connoisseurs. A presentation to the king or demonstration before the Court was the highest honour, equivalent to winning a Nobel Prize. Many people know about the first hot-air balloon flight, but numerous other events have fallen into oblivion, such as the burning mirror demonstration in front of Louis XIV or the electricity experiment in the Hall of Mirrors under his successor's reign.

You can find out more on the exhibition website--which will be on view until February of next year--by clicking here. You can see the Tympanum Player Automaton in full automaton action by pressing play on the Youtube viewer above.

If anyone makes it to this exhibition, I would love to see images/hear a report!

Top two images are installation views of the exhibition from the Corbis Images Blog. The rest of the images from the exhibition website and are captioned, top to bottom:

• The Tympanum Player Automaton; Peter Kintzing (1745-1816) and David Roentgen (1743-1807)
• Rhinoceros gifted in 1769 to King Louis XV by the French governor of Chandernagore
• Waxen Indian head from the Cabinet of the Marquis de Sérent; originally on display in a window of the Marquis de Sérent's ethnographical cabinet in Rue des Réservoirs at Versailles acquired for the princes' education.
• 18th C Artwork depicting Étienne de Montgolfier's aerostatic experiment at Versailles
• Watercolour drawing by Philippe-Etienne Lafosse (1738-1820), intended for the study of Farriery, or the art of treating the ailments of horses

Via my wonderful friend Megan Fitzpatrick who found it via Jezebel.