Light and Dust: A Reading of Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer's 'Homo ex Humo': A Guest Post by Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett

This April, we have been delighted to host Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow and medical historian Richard Barnett as Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence. This is the first of what we hope will be many posts wherein Richard responds to objects, ideas and artifacts in our collection. Here, he draws out the intricate tangle of ideas in the the illustrations of Scheuchzer's 1731 Physica Sacra (top image) and the fetal skeleton tableaux of Frederik Ruysch (bottom image). Copies of both books now reside in the Morbid Anatomy Museum Collection.

Light and Dust: A Reading of Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer's 'Homo ex Humo'
By Richard Barnett

Homo ex Humo: man from the dust. Scheuchzer’s intriguing trompe l’oie presents a picture within a picture, and a meditation on some of the oppositions at the heart of Christianity – eternity and time, grace and sin, flesh and word, light and dust.

Everything within the frame is graceful, in the most literal sense. Scheuchzer shows us the Garden of Eden on the evening of the sixth day of creation, as set out in the Book of Genesis 1:26-27 (King James Version):

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

A landscape which to modern eyes bears such clear traces of deep time and evolution served Scheuchzer and his readers well as a symbol of creation. The first dew is hardly dry on the ground, and even the dust, the abject and impermanent dust, is fresh and new. A gentle, sylvan river valley is busy with life: trees, flowers, fruits, grasses, and most of all animals, paired off two by two like the figures in a Victorian Noah’s Ark (though not in the Biblical version – see Genesis 7:1-3). Rabbits and horses, muskrats and storks have been made whole through union with a mate, and their lives are as complete as the paradise they inhabit.

Only one creature lacks a partner. Adam, the first man, seems startled to have been vaulted so suddenly into existence, and the curious position of his hands indicates an absence in his life, even in the moment of his creation. He appears to be trying to pray, but each hand cannot find its natural counterpart. If he is to praise his creator, if he is to live as contentedly the animals over which he has been granted dominion, he needs a companion. The voluptuous shapes of roots and tree-trunks beside him foreshadow what is on God’s mind, but the fulfilment of Adam’s lack will destroy the paradise we see.

Everything outside the frame is imperfect, and this imperfection is a consequence of the story unfolding within the frame. God creates Adam, then Eve, causing Adam to fall into a deep sleep and making the first woman from his rib (Genesis 1:18-25). Eve is tempted by the serpent and tempts Adam; both taste fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and fall from their original state of grace. Dissected specimens around the frame contrast the messy, fleshly reality of human reproduction, in sin and without grace, with the purity of God’s original creation in the picture – a shaft of light and a word.

On the right side of the frame is one of the strangest figures in Western art, borrowed from the Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch’s 'Tableau With Three Skeletons.' Ruysch combines two near-universal representations of birth and death – an infant and a skeleton – into a single figure expressing the sublime tragedy of creation and fall. The largest figure in the engraving, it seems to have stepped out of the picture and on to the frame, and this movement from perfection to imperfection may help to explain why it is drying its empty eye-sockets with a caul.

Inverting the natural order of things, this skeleton has died before it could be born, and it weeps for what is to come. If it is a child of Adam and Eve, is it Cain, the first murderer, or Abel, the first victim of murder? Leaving Eden, carrying the burden of original sin, it enacts the fall and banishment of its parents, taking the first reluctant steps on a long and hard road to salvation. No wonder it weeps, then; what can dry bones weep but dust?

The Morbid Anatomy Museum Update, or, "Wow! This is Really Happening!"

Morbid Anatomy is currently fundraising to support our transformation from a tiny, overstuffed Library to a new 3-floor, 4,200 square foot Morbid Anatomy Museum. The new Museum will have a giftshop featuring waxworks, taxidermy, and obscure books; a café (which will eventually serve cocktails!); a greatly expanded permanent collection; and temporary exhibitions devoted to topics such as The Art of Death, Frederik Ruysch, and, of course, 19th century anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter.  It will also have a larger, dedicated event space with, thanks to a recent grant from Awesome Without Borders, live-streamed lectures for the enjoyment of our non-New York followers!

Things have been progressing very quickly the new space! Walls are being built, windows installed, the exterior is beginning to move towards its final look, and our new Morbid Anatomy library door--see above!--has arrived, and is ready for stenciling!

We have been raising money for this project primarily via Kickstarter; we have just passed the 50% mark for our $60,000 goal, but we still need your help! You support the Kickstarter by clicking here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038582734/the-morbid-anatomy-museum.

To sweeten the deal, we have just added a new award: a hand-written poem and drawing "about a method of death of your choice" by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. Other awards include limited edition prints by artists Mark Ryden and Mark Dion; shooting antique guns with Mike Zohn of TV's "Oddities;" a collectable set piece from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas; special Morbid Anatomy merch; and much, much more!

You can also support by attending our Morbid Anatomy Museum Kickstarter fundraising party this Friday, April 18. Your admission will not only be an excellent act of charity; it will also act as a Kickstarter contribution, getting you a Morbid Anatomy Tote Bag as well as a credit for two free tickets to the future Morbid Anatomy Museum. More on that here.

Thanks so much for your support! It means the world to us, and is invaluable in helping us make this bizarre and beautiful dream into a fully-realized reality. Whether you can help support this project or not, hope very much to see you in the new space!

Images, top to bottom:

1. Rendering of the Morbid Anatomy Museum by Architects Robert Kirkbride and Anthony Cohn
2. Morbid Anatomy Museum exterior
3. Grants and exhibitions coordinator Aaron Beebe with the new Morbid Anatomy Library door

Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend with Morbid Anatomy and The Incredible Vrolik Museum, May 10 and 11th

The Vrolik Museum--Amsterdam’s incredible anatomical museum, of which many photos above--and Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum are proud to be teaming up to present Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend on May 10th and 11th, 2014 at the Museum Vrolik.

The weekend will feature a special program of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and exclusive museum and backstage tours showcasing The Vrolik's phenomenal and historical collection of osteology, teratology, natural history and curiosities. British Wax modeller and sculptor Eleanor Crook--artist in residence at Gordon’s Museum at Guy’s Hospital in London--will lead two workshops in which students will create---and leave with—their own dermatological wax model, or "moulage."

Other activities will include exclusive back stage tours of the Vrolik’s astouding storage rooms (2nd image down); lectures about amazing 17th century anatomical collections such as those of the “Artist of Death” Frederik Ruysch; demonstrations of wet specimen restoration and skeleton mounting and reconstruction; and special museum tours focusing on congenital malformations and historical highlights. There will also be a reception in the museum at which copies of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology will be available for sale and signing.

The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy is part of the Netherlands Month of Anatomy organized by the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the University Museum of Utrecht, and the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam with the Morbid Anatomy Museum of Brooklyn, New York.

Full details below, and more here; hope very much to see you there!

The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy
The Vrolik--Amsterdam’s anatomical museum--and Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum are proud to present a weekend devoted to anatomy over the weekend of May 10th and 11th, 2014. To celebrate, the Vrolik will be open to the public with a special program of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and exclusive museum and backstage tours showcasing its phenomenal and historical collection of osteology, teratology, natural history and curiosities.

Highlights include a workshop in wax modeling with sculptor Eleanor Crook in which students will create---and leave with—their own anatomical or dermatological wax model; demonstrations of liquid anatomical specimen restoration and skeleton mounting and reconstruction; a museum tour focusing on teratology, the specimens of congenital malformations in the Vrolik collection, and historical highlights of the collection; lectures about amazing 17th century anatomical collections such as those of “Artist of Death” Frederik Ruysch; and back stage tours of the Vrolik’s storage rooms.

Moulage/Wax Modelling Workshop
During the weekend of anatomy, British Wax modeller and sculptor Eleanor Crook will give two workshops. Crook has created anatomical and pathological waxes for several medical and science museums in Britain (e.g. the Science Museum and the Hunterian Museum), and is artist in residence at Gordon’s Museum at Guy’s Hospital, London. She has led many workshops in wax modelling, but this is her first in the Netherlands. For anyone familiar with the famous anatomical and pathological waxes in Vienna, Paris or Bologna, and who would like to experience the art of wax modelling for him or herself, this workshop offers a unique opportunity. All materials and tools are provided for this workshop, and each student will leave with their own beautiful wax model. Please note: Application for this workshop is separate from the rest of the program. See program and prices for separate charge.

Demonstration of Skeleton Mounting
In this demonstration, skeleton articulator Lucas Boer will put together a complete animal skeleton from its separate bones, explain the structure and function of these bones, and point out the differences in bone structure in the main groups of vertebrates. Visitors will also be invited to touch the animal bones and skulls.

Wet Specimen Restoration
In this demonstration, anatomical technician and specimen conservator Inge Dijkman will show the ways in which the Vrolik’s century-old collection of wet specimens are maintained and restored. Viewers will see the anatomical specimens removed from their jars, learn about the kind of liquids used for preservation, and witness all the steps needed for the care, upkeep and restoration of these incredible specimens.

Special Tours and Lectures
A series of special lectures and tours will focus on historical and medical aspects of some of the most famous and enigmatic Dutch anatomical collections, such as those of 17th century Frederik Ruysch, referred to as “Artist of Death” by his biographer Luuc Kooijmans. Experts in the history of the Vrolik collection and in the field of congenital malformations will give special tours showing the historical highlights of the collection, and the origin of the congenital malformations in the collection. There will also be exclusive backstage tours of the Museum Vrolik’s storage rooms and of the hospitals collection of dermatological wax models, neither of which are generally accessible to the public.

Program

Saturday May 10th
10:00 - 12:00     Lectures by Luuc Kooijmans (about the anatomist Frederik Ruysch); Frank Ijpma (about the surviving Ruysch specimens); Marieke Hendriksen (about beaded babies and decoration in anatomy) Joanna Ebenstein (about the persisting impact of Frederik Ruysch and about her new Morbid Anatomy Museum; and Eleanor Crook (about the art of wax modeling and its history).
12:00 - 13:00     Lunch
13:00 - 17:00     Workshops and demonstrations (wax models, mounting skeletons, liquid specimen restoration); historical highlights of Museum Vrolik-tour
From 17:00     Drinks in Museum Vrolik; sale and signing of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology

Sunday May 11th
10:00 - 12:00     Thematic city tour/ possibly visits to old anatomy tower in Waag on Nieuwmarkt
13:00 - 17:00     Workshops (Wax modeling) and museum tours (congenital malformations and historical highlights); backstage tour to wax models of dermatology and to the Museum Vrolik storage rooms.

Prices

• Workshop medical wax modelling (Eleanor Crook): 65 euro per workshop (4 hrs)
• Two day program (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 25 euros
• Program Saturday 10th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 15 euros
• Program Sunday 11th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 15 euros
• Lunch on Saturday: 7 euros
• NB: lunch on Sunday is not provided due to the traveling between the city center and Academic Medical Center.

To sign up:
Please email museumvrolik@amc.uva.nl.  Please do not forget to select which part of the program you want to participate in.

Location
Academic Medical Center: Museum Vrolik (ground floor, building section J) and lecture room and dissection rooms of anatomy, second floor, building section L)

Month of Anatomy
The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy is part of the Netherlands Month of Anatomy organized by the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the University Museum of Utrecht, and the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam with the Morbid Anatomy Museum of Brooklyn, New York. There will be three special weekends of lectures, tours and workshops concerning anatomy in May. Museum Vrolik is the first (10th and 11th of May); on the 24th and 25th of may a weekend of anatomy is organized by the University Museum of Utrecht and finally on 31st of may and the 1st of July Museum Boerhaave closes the month of anatomy. See for details about the activities of the other museums.

Photos of the museum overviews are by Paul Bomers; the other pictures are by Hans van den Bogaard, from the wonderful book Forces of Form.

Basel's Fasnacht Carnival and The Dance of Death: Guest Post by Jordan Marzuki

Morbid Anatomy reader Jordan Marzuki just sent in a fascinating guest post about Basel's Fasnacht Carnival and its relationship to death and pre-Christian rituals; he has also made a rather wonderful video of the parade which you can view above or by clicking here.

"Fasnacht" carnival takes its name from the start of the fasting season of lent. But this, the most important event in the life of Basel, Switzerland, is also fixed by Christian holy days. Carnival is always held six weeks before Easter, a week later than the Fas(t)nacht widely celebrated throughout neighboring German-speaking Catholic areas. The city of Basel is also associated with the "Totentanz" or dance of the death. That reminded people that whether rich or poor, and no matter one's station in life, everyone has to die.

Locals describe the event as the the three most beautiful days of the year. Up to 12,000 carnival participants march around the city in groups according to in their themed costumes and masks. Most of themes are associated with the topic of death – which is revering to the Basler Totentanz.

The Basler Fasnacht is now a part of the cultural identity of the city of Basel, and is often depicted as ancient tradition. Although the officially organized Carnival has only existed since 1920, it draws on traditions tracing back to pre-Christian times, and is connected with the spirits of the night, which are personified by masks. The masks represent a kind of struggle with the negative powers. With the end of winter, these spirits are driven away, the "expulsion of the winter," and the victory of spring.

On the Collection and Display of Human Remains: Guest Post by Evan Michelson, TV's "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Museum

The debate about the ethics of collecting and displaying human remains went mainstream recently with this CNN article about a man who stole over sixty human brains and other specimens from the Indiana Medical History Museum and tried to sell them on Ebay. Morbid Anatomy Museum's scholar in residence Evan Michelson is a researcher into the history of such collections, in contexts both sacred and secular. Following is her thoughtful and considered response to the CNN article, which went so far as to single out her show "Oddities" as "being illustrative of a growing trend for collecting curiosities, particularly anatomical specimens."

A CNN article published on January 3, 2014 chronicled the arrest of a young man who stole some early brain specimens from an Indiana medical museum to sell on Ebay. In the article the TV show "Oddities" was cited as being illustrative of a growing trend for collecting curiosities, particularly anatomical specimens. Said the executive director of the museum: "it's definitely bizarre. It's infuriating that they do not have respect for the human remains." This statement raises a few important points: I think everyone can agree that the illegal buying, selling and hoarding of exhumed or pilfered human remains is deeply disrespectful, repugnant, and indefensible on moral and legal grounds. No one can condone or defend such ghoulish goings-on. What is not being addressed, however, is an unavoidable truth: humans have always lived with, loved, and learned from our dead.

The urge to collect, display and venerate human remains is nothing new: it stretches back through the millennia, and plays a vital role in the history of science, medicine and many religions across cultures and around the globe.The widespread practice of ancestor worship originated at a time before recorded history (and is still practiced to this day). The gathering of bones is an irrepressible and primal human urge. Humans have long honored our dead with altars, elevating bones (particularly skulls) to a level of intimate spiritual totem. In many cultures the presence of human remains brings both comfort and continuity. From the Tibetan Kanling (a flute made from a human thigh bone) to the mummies of Palermo to the gorgeous calligraphy of 19th century French memorial hair work, to be in the material presence of the dead is to be one with generations past, to commune with the spirits, to ask favors, to remember, to harness power and to connect with the infinite.

In the service of science and medicine, human remains (such as those pilfered from the museum) have long been essential. It is only through contact with the dead that the secrets of the living have been revealed. The great anatomical insights of the classical physician and philosopher Galen (who primarily studied the anatomy of primates and pigs) are often overshadowed by the many glaring inaccuracies. These fatal mistakes ruled the study of anatomy for more than 1300 years, until anatomists like Andreas Vesalius delved into the human body proper to uncover a more accurate and comprehensive map of our internal architecture. In the 16th century depictions of these anatomical discoveries entered our collective human consciousness, and human dissections became works of high art and an essential part of the great humanist movement that flowed through the Renaissance and powered the scientific revolution. There followed the era of the beautiful corpse, when ceroplasts like Ercole Lelli and Clemente Susini created wax corpses and anatomical moulages of such surpassing beauty and accuracy that they inspired Popes, Emperors and commoners alike to see human anatomy as an important discipline worthy of respect and wonder. The human corpus had at last become a part of high and low common visual culture.

The preservation and display of actual human remains is a time-honored tradition in the great Positivist cities of the Western world, and most centers of learning had their own anatomical collections. These specimens of human anatomy were artfully prepared and displayed, and they illustrate the collective human journey from the realm of superstition through the refinements of natural philosophy and eventually to the rise of modern science. Exhibitions like "Body Worlds" still draw large crowds, eager to examine up-close what is so often kept hidden, and so often considered taboo. The sourcing of the "Body Worlds" cadavers is cause for justified legal and moral scrutiny, but their public display is an enlightening, time-honored tradition. For centuries, museums of anatomy have housed human specimens that are at once didactic, metaphorical and breathtakingly beautiful. These anatomized specimens can still be seen on exhibition in museums and in private collections, and they still provide unparalleled insight into our earthly selves. Anatomy is now digitized, and our bodies (down to a microscopic level) are available at the click of a button, but there is no substitute for the visceral presence of preserved anatomy; it is the best way to know ourselves.

Nowhere is the power of human remains more evident than in the evolution of the Christian religion and the rise of the Roman Catholic Church; there the collection and adoration of human body parts reached its artistic and spiritual pinnacle. The cult of the saints guaranteed that human remains would take center stage in the evolving political, economic and spiritual journey of the West. Religious pilgrims travelled great distances to be in the presence of the bones of the early martyrs, and the wealth thus generated drove an unprecedented competition for relics and a trade in human body parts (particularly in Western Europe) that determined the power centers of the modern world. We are all living in a map shaped by the preservation, display and possession of the dead.

The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka is home to the tooth of the Buddha, one of the most celebrated relics on Earth. Once a year the relic is featured at a 10 day festival that includes fire dancers, musicians, street performers and scores of elephants. It draws an estimated crowd of one million participants, making it one of the largest Buddhist gatherings in the world. It is obvious that there is something irresistible about our anatomy, something that reaches us on a primal level. We fear and worship human remains, we shun death but we are irresistibly drawn to the dead. That young man who stole those brains broke the law and showed great disrespect in the commission of that crime. The instinct to collect, display and commune with the dead, however, is not as bizarre or disrespectful as some may think: it connects us with our earthly selves, and allows us to glimpse eternity.

Image sourced here.

Official Provisional Charter to Operate Morbid Anatomy Museum Devoted to "Liminal, Interdisciplinary, or Marginal" Artifacts!

The Morbid Anatomy Museum just received its official provisional charter to, in the words of the charter itself:

a) To operate a museum to promote, support, and present exhibitions of artifacts and artworks rarely featured in traditional museums due to their liminal, interdisciplinary, or marginal nature;in the words of the charter; b. To foster community awareness and appreciation of art, artifacts and ideas that do not conform to mainstream culture; c. To provide and maintain an archive relating to the topics presented, ideas explored, and craft represented by the featured exibitions; d. To promote and showcase the work of lesser-known local and international artists, makers and craftspeople whose work does not conform to mainstream art culture; e. To organize and host speaking engagements related to the topics explored by the exhibitions and the archive. 

Please consider donating to our Kickstarter campaign today to help make this the best museum it can be--for all of us!--at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038582734/the-morbid-anatomy-museum.

The Madrid Anatomical Theatre, "Anatomía Completa del Hombre," 1728

The Madrid anatomy theatre, engraving by Matías de Irala, from Martín Martínez's Anatomía completa del hombre, Madrid, 1728. Courtesy of the Biblioteca y Museo historicomédicos del Instituto López Piñero de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación (CSIC/Universitat de València).

Via National Library of Medicine (NLM) and learned about at the recent Congress for Curious Peopl,e Barcelona 2014.

"Sending your Prayers to Me Will Cure the Ailment of the Soul" or The Bayer Aspirin Prayer Card: Guest post by Laetitia Barbier

One of the more intriguing new additions to the Morbid Anatomy collection is this glow-in-the-dark Bayer Aspirin Prayer card. Its donor, Enric H. March of the wonderful Barcelona history blog Bereshit explained to me that it dates from the 1940s and was produced during the Spanish Civil Postwar, while the Nazis were reshaping the map of Europe.

How to explain this heady mix of Christian imagery and medicine? In March's words: "aspirin and sacred wafer are similar in form and content, and complement each other: where there is no faith, aspirin; where there is aspirin, faith. This image is made with fluorescent paint, and lights the darkness. If you look intently image for thirty seconds and then directs you to view a white surface, it appears God. True. I do not need faith. As with aspirin."

Following is a guest post by Morbid Anatomy Library head Librarian Laetitia Barbier based into her research into this wonderful new addition to our collection:

After the Congress of Curious People in Barcelona, Joanna came back with a suitcase full of newly acquired books and artifacts for the Library. Within all these treasures, one piece of ephemera was particularly fascinating and enigmatic to me: a Bayer-produced religious card which appeared in Spain around the 1940s, and which was kindly donated by Enric H. March.

If “The Sacred Heart of Jesus” is fairly common motif  in catholic devotional icons, this one revealed itself to one of a kind. Beneath its minimal, black and white design, this compassionate-looking Christ had indeed more than one story to tell.

First curious fact: the right hand-corner is embossed with a cross-like logo which has nothing religious, as its the emblem of BAYER, the german pharmaceutical firm which synthesized and patterned Aspirin in the 19th Century. A “major remedy,” and a universal one, as indicated the small text in spanish that Jesus points-up to our attention with his benedictory hand gesture. I was pretty confused myself: was this a pious image or a commercial ad? The idea that a Jesus image could become an advocate of Aspirin’s effervescence and miraculous virtues was odd and pretty incongruous. However, it appeared clear that BAYER designed this object to be both a religious icon and a way to publicize their medicine.

In the manner of catholic prayer cards, The BAYER Sacred Heart was probably mass produced as a devotional object that people could carry around in books or wallet and use for private veneration. Nowadays, pharmaceutical firms give away pens, mugs, and other every-day objects to potential clients, so why not an icon when you want to seduce a Roman Catholic country? Moreover, the cardboard icon is coated with glow-in-the-dark-ink, leaving Jesus’s heart to glare metaphorically once the lights go out, after the night-time prayer. This card had to become a major artifact in people’s daily religious routine.

But beyond its novelty aspect, its most fascinating side dwell the underlying message which form the core of this twisted commercial strategy. If this Christ could talk, he will probably whispers to us this exact slogan: "Sending your prayers to me will cure the ailment of the soul. But for the prosaic torments of the human body, there is Bayer Aspirin.”

This is the third guest post Laetitia has written based on her favorite curiosities in the Morbid Anatomy Library; to see all posts by Laetitia, click here. Click on images to see larger, more detailed versions.

Picturing the Shattered Faces of War: A Guest Post by Kristin Hussey, Hunterian Museum, London

Kristin Hussey--Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons with responsibility for the Odontological Collection--has kindly agreed to write a series of guest posts for Morbid Anatomy about some of the most curious objects in her collection.

The fourth post from that series follows; you can view all posts in this series by clicking here.

Picturing the shattered faces of War: First World War dental radiographs

The Victorian era was a crucial time of development for the dental profession, yet nothing could have prepared late 19th century dental practitioners for the massive facial trauma wrought by the First World War (1914-1918). In a conflict fought in trenches, soldier’s heads were the most vulnerable area in the line of fire. While steel helmets undoubtedly saved lives, ricocheting bullets caused unprecedented facial injuries. Mechanized warfare sent soldier home from the Front with disfiguring blast injuries; their shattered jaws held together by wire plating and splints made from whatever materials the clearing stations had to hand.

Many British soldiers with jaw injuries found themselves bound for the Croydon War Hospital outside London to a specialist unit headed by James Frank Colyer (1866-1954), a dental surgeon and the curator of the Odontological Society Museum since 1900. Today the Odontological Collection holds a collection of 23 radiographs, also known as skiagrams, showing the shattered jaws of Colyer’s soldier patients.

Colyer’s prescription for healing fractured jaws was simple but effective. First the patients’ mouths needed to be cleaned and sterilized as their injuries often became infected in the time it took to reach the hospital. Once radiographs were taken, they were taken to the operating theatre to reduce the fracture as much as possible. Colyer was particularly adamant that teeth needed to be removed from the fracture line as these often became septic, keeping the bone from healing. Then supportive splints, rest and a carefully selected diet was what was needed to get Britain’s soldiers fighting fit. For his work at the Croydon Hospital, Colyer was knighted in 1920.

The collection of radiographs in the Odontological Collection is interesting both as a record of First World War injuries, as well as serving as a reminder of the incredible importance of x-ray technology in the early twentieth century. X-rays, also known as roentgen rays, had only been discovered by German Professor William Röntgen in 1895. The new technology was put to use almost immediately in the medical world, and many major hospitals had x-ray departments by 1897. By the time the First World War was raging on the Continent, portable x-ray units were widely used by the military and such equipment could be found at most clearing stations and base hospitals. Although the images are not as detailed as they are today, the radiographs were essential in identifying foreign bodies and fractures previously invisible to the dentist’s eye.

Images:

1. The x-ray equipment at The Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup, c. 1917-1920. Courtesy of the Antony Wallace Archive of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS)
2. Radiograph of a fractured jaw caused by a rifle bullet, 1915-1919. (RCSOM/F 9.42) Copyright the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
3. Radiograph of a fractured jaw resulting from a fall from a mast, 1915-1919. (RCSOM/F 8.3) Copyright the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
4. A portable x-ray installation suitable for use in war, 1915. Copyright Wellcome Library, London.  

 

On Saint Agatha and Preserved Breasts: Guest Post by Evan Michelson, TV's "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Museum

Below is a guest post by Evan Michelson, board member of The Morbid Anatomy Museum and co-star of TV's "Oddities," from our recent trip exploring the history of the preservation and display of the human body in Italy. Text by Evan, and photo by myself.

Joanna Ebenstein shot this at the Museo di Anatomia Umana located in the medical school in Pisa, Italy. I am holding a human breast, preserved through mercury injection using the Mascagni technique; you can still see the metal glistening in the vessels running through the glazed, preserved skin. This specimen has an ancient and somewhat festive look; a cross between a holy relic and marzipan. It is typical of a certain school of Italian anatomical preservation where the line between anatomical didacticism and a more decorative, metaphorical presentation is often blurred.

In Italy, the healing powers of science and medicine often walk hand-in-hand with the miraculous, restorative powers of the saints. St. Agatha of Sicily, patron saint of breast cancer (among other things) is often depicted presenting her amputated breasts on a tray. It is said that Agatha was martyred for being a virtuous woman who refused the advances of a local Roman prelate; in the course of his retaliatory torture her breasts were torn off (a not-uncommon punishment for women, much documented during the Medieval period). St. Peter visited Agatha in her jail cell, where he miraculously restored her mutilated mammaries. 

Breast cancer surgery was frequently (but not always) fatal for most of recorded human history: the cancer was often found too late and the surgery itself, performed in highly unsanitary conditions, often led to serious complications. By the time a woman sought medical help, she was usually in great distress - obviously disfigured and/or in serious pain. A terrifying, risky visit to the surgeon was the only option left to her. It is only relatively recently that early detection and advanced surgical techniques have made seemingly-miraculous breast reconstruction a common occurrence. Anatomical collections like the one in Pisa had an important part to play in the progress of scientific and medical advancement. Mysterious, strangely decorative preservations like this breast are a part of that story.

You can read more of Evan's writings on her Facebook page by clicking here. You can find out more about the museum by clicking here.

The Morbid Anatomy Museum is Coming Soon and it Needs Your Help!

For over six years, Morbid Anatomy has been showcasing, preserving, and championing forgotten and liminal artifacts, art, and ideas, providing a home for those things which would otherwise fall through the cracks of collection, informed discussion and exhibition. Now, Morbid Anatomy is moving into a 3-floor, 4,200 square foot building in the Gowanus and completely renovating it. But to do it--and to make it the most fantastic space possible--we need your help!

Towards that end, we have just launched a Kickstarter campaign--which you can view by clicking here--featuring such exciting awards as limited edition prints by artists Mark Ryden and Mark Dion (3rd and 4th images down); "experiential awards" with stars of TV's Oddities including a trip to Brimfield antiques market with Evan Michelson, shooting antique guns with Mike Zohn and a private tour of Ryan Matthew Cohn's astounding home museum; a collectable set piece from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas; tickets to our popular Morbid Anatomy Museum annual Day of the Dead bus trip; a private party in the museum; special Morbid Anatomy merch; and much, much more!

You can find out more--and contribute to what we hope you'll agree is a very worthy cause!--by clicking here. You can watch the wonderful intro video byfilmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas of The Midnight Archive and narrated by Oddities's Evan Michelson above.

Beyond the great awards, why should you considering lending your support to The Morbid Anatomy Museum? Here are a few reasons: it will be a beautiful and inspiring space to foster our unique international community of supporters, friends, artists, rogue scholars and like-minded enthusiasts; it will enshrine that which we hold dear; and it will be a place to study, to delight; a place to “meet the others.” It will also feature:

• An inaugural temporary exhibition on 19th century anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter, which will reunite many pieces from his now divided museum include the incredible circa 1890 Kitten Wedding (second image down)
• An enlarged, beautiful library to house our rapidly expanding collection of over 2,500 books
• An exhibition space to showcase our ever-growing permanent collection 
• A gift shop with our own quirky merch, taxidermy, waxworks, curiosia and obscure books from around the world
• A café serving espresso and pastries seven days a week, with plans to expand to a full bar
• More publications by Morbid Anatomy Press
• A new lecture and event space capable of holding twice our current numbers featuring talks by Morbid Anatomy favorites such as Stanley Burns (The Burns Archive), Paul Koudounaris (Empire of Death), Amy Herzog, Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician), and Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn of TV’s Oddities.
• Expanded public programing including visiting international scholars such as Richard Barnett (Wellcome Collection), Mel Gordon (Voluptuous Panic, Grand Guignol) and John Troyer (Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath)
• More field trips and classes, and live-casting of lectures
• A film branch, with filmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas of The Midnight Archive
• A rooftop terrace where you can enjoy a cocktail while taking in breathtaking views of industrial Brooklyn and the mighty Gowanus Canal

Again, you can find out more--and donate now!--by clicking here. Whether you can contribute or not, we hope very much to see you soon in the new museum!

Images, top to bottom:

1. Rendering of the Morbid Anatomy Museum by Architects Robert Kirkbride and Anthony Cohn
2. Kitten Wedding by Walter Potter; to be on view at The Morbid Anatomy Museum in June
3. Mark Ryden, “Tree of Mystery”An limited edition artwork by Mark Ryden in a beautiful hand-carved wood frame
4. Limited edition signed and number print by Mark Dion, available only as part of this kickstarter!

Heroic Figure of Death with Three Female Allegories, Pen and Ink, 18th Century?

An heroic figure of Death with three female allegories. Pen and ink drawing. 18th Century? 

From Wellcome Images.

Two Allegorical Figures, Lithograph, Wellcome Images

Two allegorical figures: a skeleton holding a scythe and a ball of fire stands next to a female figure. Lithograph. 

Via Wellcome Images.

"Ink and Silver: Medicine, Photography, and the Printed Book, 1845-1880," Columbia University Medical Center, NYC

Stephen E. Novak--Head, Archives & Special Collections at A.C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University Medical Center--just sent word of this wonderful looking free lecture on 19th century medicine and photography taking place at Columbia University Medical Center on Thursday, April 3. Full details follow. Hope very much to see you there

History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
Ink and Silver: Medicine, Photography, and the Printed Book, 1845-1880
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD, Coordinator of Public Services, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Refreshments, 5:30, Lecture 6pm
Russ Berrie Pavilion, Room 1
1150 St. Nicholas Avenue at West 168th Street
Sponsored by the Columbia University Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library
Free and Open to the Public

The impact of the introduction of photography after 1839 on the arts and popular culture has long been extensively explored.  The use of photography in medicine has also attracted the interest of historians and archivists, resulting in many significant collections of material both in public and private hands.

However, far too often, individual images have been made to stand alone, far removed from their original context, and therefore mysterious to the viewer. Why were these pictures taken? Who saw them? Were they meant for private study or professional publication?  How did they reflect the techniques and aesthetics of the rest of contemporary photography? Most importantly, how, in a purely technical sense, did one produce and publish medical photographs in the 19th century?

Dr. Greenberg will address the use of photography in 19th-century printed medical books, both from technological and aesthetic viewpoints, using the vast photographic resources of the National Library of Medicine to highlight milestones in the history of medical photography, and to explain how they were presented to the viewer.

The lecture is on Thursday, April 3 at 6pm in Room 1 of the Russ Berrie Pavilion.  Refreshments will be served beginning at 5:30.

Image: from G.-B. Duchenne’s 1862 Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine.

The Museo Roca, The Parade of Monsters, and Spanish Popular Anatomical Museums at The Barcelona Congress for Curious People!

Last week, we celebrated day one of the Barcelona Congress for Curious People with a special "Medicine and Science in Old Barcelona" walking tour; it featured a variety of anatomically-themed lectures, including one in the astounding 18th Century Royal Academy of Medicine's Anatomical Theatre, and another by Enric H. March--author of the wonderful (but sadly Catalan language only) blog Bereshit--on the history of popular anatomical museums in Barcelona such as the Museo Roca and its "Parade of Monsters."

March explained to me that he became interested in popular anatomical museums when he happened upon some ephemera related to The Museo Roca at a local antique shop in 2008. He has since done a great deal of research, including some in tandem with Alfons Zarzoso--curator of the Museu d'Història de la Medicina de Catalunya--who was the first to introduce me to the topic many years ago. We ended up featuring a number of pieces from this collection for the Wellcome Collection's 2009 exhibition Exquisite Bodies: or the Curious and Grotesque History of the Anatomical Model.

El Periódico, a much read Spanish newspaper, ran a lovely piece about our day of anatomy, featuring an interview with March about his work, popular anatomical museums in general and the Museo Roca; you can see the article by clicking here, or read it in English (via Google Translate, with a few of my own fine tunings) following.

Above are some images, and also an utterly mind-blowing video montage by Yolanda Fontal which March included in his talk. It features, among other things, a walk-through of the collection when it was still in private hands in Barcelona. VERY much worth a watch, but also, due to horrific diseased genitals, definitely NSFW.

If this is of interest, definitely check out Enric H. March amazing Bereshit blog by clicking here.

The Museum of Horrors

Museum Roca came to Barcelona in 1900 as a show where people queued to see naked bodies. A Belgian billionaire bought the collection and exhibits in Antwerp

Archive Museum of Roca
Diseases and newspaper. The consequences of venereal diseases were spreading to Chinatown.

Phenomena like the giant spider from Japan, the Siamese twins, monsters, real human fetuses, creepy close-ups of genitals deformed by venereal diseases. All this and many more dreadful images formed the Roca Museum, founded by Francisco Roca, a professional illusionist and promoter of shows in Carrer Nou de la Rambla 1900.

Locals lined up to see what was exhibited in those rooms: waxworks naked and slit open to show the inside of the body, and other amazing and creepy images aroused popular curiosity for the medical or educational interest. "Impressionable people should abstain from entering," warned a poster at the entrance of the museum, which years later moved to Parallel, and ended with the pieces stored for decades in a storage room.

Sale and transfer
"Francis Arellano, collector and antiques dealer, bought the entire collection. Nobody in Barcelona was interested, and they ended at the hands of a Belgian millionaire currently who currently exhibits them in his private residence in Antwerp," reveals Enric H. March, author of the blog Bereshit, yesterday during the first day of the Congress of Curious People, held until March 2 in Barcelona. He gave an illustrated lecture on the history of anatomical museums during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, notably the the Roca Museum.

"It was an exhibition of wax figures depicting the human body, its physiology in health and also ravaged bycertain diseases, especially venereal ones," explains March." It was the time when the scientific expositions revealed, and museums began to exhibit what until then were private collections. Between 1849 and 1938, there were 26 anatomical collections on view in Barcelona." March is particularly interested in the Roca Museum's sociological aspect, wherein the popular of such museum rose along with a more general interest in health and hygiene.

The museum was founded Roca supported by the gentry, but soon become a popular show."Went into decline when the film came to Barcelona," he says. No longer interested or famous anatomical Venus, who not only showed their female sexual organs, pubic hair also." Something unthinkable in any graphic expression of the time, even in artistic representations."

"Machina del Mondo," Etching with Hand-Coloring, 1675-1710

 

"Machina del Mondo, ogn'un cerca di star sopra il compagno;" etching with hand-coloring, 1675-1710

Described on the British Museum website thusly: "A pyramid of ten persons climbing on top of each other, the poor at the bottom, the king at the top; Death appears to take them all."

Found via BibliOdyssey; more here.

Happy Valentine's Day and Hope to See You at "Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica": Our Very Special Valentine’s Day Event with Cocktails by Friese Undine!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all from Morbid Anatomy, and hope to see you tonight at Colin Dickey's illustrated talk "Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica" with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine!

Full information about the event can be found here.

Thanks to Friese Undine for finding this wonderful image!

“Folly and Death," Magic Lantern or Phantasmagoria Slide?

“Folly and Death,” from the Joel Rubin collection of Kliegl slides, Theatre Research Institute; magic lantern or Phantasmagoria slide?

Via Ohio State University Libraries. More here.

Congress for Curious People in Barcelona, Spain for Carnival Week! February 26 - March 2, 2014!

This year, Morbid Anatomy is delighted to be co-presenting--along with Aaron Beebe, Via Barcelona and Kriminal Kabarett--a special Barcelona, Spain-based Congress for Curious People! Scheduled to coincide with Carnival (February 26 - March 2), this week-long cultural festival is dedicated to the history of Carnival and to enlightenment-era Barcelona in general. It will highlight the unusual and hidden sides of Barcelona via special walking tours, conferences, dinners, decadent costume parties, and more.

A list of events follow; for full details on all, click here. All events will be in Spanish with English translation. Hope very much to see you there!

Also: if any of you out there have must-see suggestions for Madrid or Barcelona, I would love to hear them! Just shoot me an email at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

Barcelona, Spain Congress for Curious People
Dates: February 26 - March 2
Admission: Varies; see website for more info
Tickets can be purchased by emailing curiouscongressbcn@gmail.com or calling 34677360980
Presented by
** All programs in Spanish with English Translation

This year, the Congress for Curious People will travel to Barcelona to help celebrate Carnival Week with a week-long cultural festival highlighting the unusual side of Barcelona. For a single, action-packed week, we will satisfy your curiosity through special activities, cultural itineraries, conferences and exclusive dinners and parties. The Congress is dedicated to the history of Carnival and to the city of Barcelona in its age of Enlightenment after 1714, and will take the form of special visits and walking tours, decadent parties, and talks on the history of medicine and science between the XV and XVIII centuries. 

SCHEDULE

Wednesday, February 26

Medicine and Science in Old Barcelona
A guided tour of The “Royal College of Surgeons,” which will open the doors of the sumptuous anatomical amphitheater, one of the best preserved in the world with lectures and discussions about natural history and sciences, medicine and Barcelona curiosities. More here. 

Thursday, February 27

Bunkers and Mansions: Secrets of Tibidado Avenue Walking Tour
An unusual tour through the splendour and the decadence of the bourgeois Barcelona in the former village of “Sant Gervasi.” The itinerary will follow the path of aristocratic and orientalist residences with enigmatic stories, featuring the luxurious mansions in the “Golden Twenties” to the lights and shadows of the Second Spanish Republic and the Civil War as well as a visit to the palace which hosted the Soviet embassy in 1936 and its impressive bunker, shelter for one of the most famous spies in the XX century. More here.

Friday, February 28
The Unusual Side of Gracia Walking Tour
A walking tour of "Gràcia”, an independent village until 1897, is well known today for being one of the biggest cultural centers in Barcelona, with dynamic societies and one of the most emblematic festivals in our country. Here, you to discover its history and above all, the most surprising curiosities in the district. Topics will include the legends in “plaça de la Virreina” and the “Devil’s House”, the clocks of Gracia, revolutions and freemasonry and the circle of spiritist women in the late XIX century. The tour will include a visit inside the private garden of fabulous fairy tale palace: “Casa Vicens”, designed by Gaudí. More here. 

Friday, February 28

Noir Masquerade
Tonight will celebrate our "Noir Masquerade" inside theAtelier de la Muerte Negra-- a private death museum in the heart of "Gràcia". This is the masterpiece of Otilio Salazar, a fashion designer and artist who paid a tribute to the anthropology of death in ancient cultures (Egypt, Rome, medieval Europe, Japan...) More here. 

Saturday, March 1

The Masonic Barcelona and the Athenaeum Minerva Walking Tour
This is a walking tour about the history of freemasonry and its privileged relationship with Barcelona. It will include stops at "Parc de la Ciutadella," not far from the “Arús Public Library,”a former lodge and a sanctuary for XIX century knowledge. We will continue with a fascinating tour exploring masonic urbanism and the “Congress of Spiritism” during the Universal Exhibition in 1888, the hermetic gates in the monastery of Saint Agustine, the Napoleonic invasion and freemasonry, XVIII century esoterism and the visit of count Cagliostro, and the secrets of the Templar Knights in the medieval royal palace. Specially for us, the members of the “Simbolic Lodge of Spain” will open their lodge, the "Athenaeum Minerva", in the heart of the medieval city. An exceptional oportunity to discover an institution which has been an enormous influence for arts, science, architecture and philosophy. More here.

Saturday, March 1
Surrealist Dinner
Kriminal Kabarett presents its first SURREALIST DINNER , an evening of Carnival in the mythical "Taxidermist" in Plaza Real, now occupied by the Mariscco restaurant. This is dedicated to the taxidermist as one of the favorite places of Salvador Dali in Barcelona, and whose fascination for good food eventually led him to publish in 1973 a book of culinary arts, "Les diners de Gala". This dinner will  join two passions of this Genius: gastronomy and the animal kingdom, to recall the surrealist dinners for which he was famous during his stays in Paris and New York. The menu will be inspired by Catalan and Mediterranean cuisine: opening tapas and then seafood. Water, wine and dessert are included. Gin provided by Hendricks. More here. 

Sunday, March 2

Libertine Barcelona- Erotic Tour from the XVIII Century
This is a walking tour of Rococo Barcelona, a city in the Age of Enlightement after the dramatic episodes of 1714. The count of Peralada and Diana, his courtesan, will guide you through the erotic adventures of Giacomo Casanova when he visited our city in 1768, the masked balls organized by the governor, the mysteries of Count Cagliostro, the erudite circle in “Palau Dalmases” and the libertine general Lecchi under Napoleonic rule. A theatralised and sexy tour for Carnival, performed by the artist Lady Bon Bon and sponsored by Isabel Capdevila from “aDa Art Gallery”, who created precious costumes. The tour will finish in the "Palace Gomis", a XVIII century building near Picasso Museum. Inside its spectacular ballroom, we will celebrate a conference about sex and pornography in the XIX century Spain (by Albert Domenech, writer in the bibliophile blog "Piscolabis Librorum"). More here.

Valentine's Week at Morbid Anatomy: Pseudo-Scientific Porn, Vintage Erotica, Chastity Belts, Occult Egypt and Singles Night with Jawbreaker's Blake Schwarzenbach!

Happy almost Valentine's Day! To celebrate (or express disdain!) why not join us for one of our very many excellent offerings this week at Morbid Anatomy Presents in Brooklyn, New York?
First up: tomorrow night (Monday, Feb 10) is our first ever Morbid Anatomy singles night (!!!) hosted by Daisy Tainton with DJ Blake Schwarzenbach (former frontman of Jawbreaker!) which is sure to be a great time! The following evening (Tuesday, Feb 11) we are delighted to present "Women Who Bite: Chastity Belts, Castration Anxiety and Feminism" with Art Historian Karen Bachmann followed by "The ‘After’ Life: Death in Ancient Egypt" with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Ava Forte Vitali on (Thursday, Feb 13).

On Valentine's Day proper, we would love to see you at Colin Dickey's illustrated exposé on the pseudo-scientific underworld of "Gentleman's Erotica" entitled "Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica" with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine (Friday, Feb 14). If that is not enough vintage erotica for you, why not pair it with the inimitable Mel Gordon's "Erotic Guide to Paris at Night, Circa 1936" taking place the very next night (Saturday, Feb 15). This highly illustrated talk will be augmented by screenings of rare vintage films showcasing the illicit world of luxury brothels, gay and lesbian cabarets, nudist supper clubs, lavish music hall productions, and love cult initiations of 1930s Paris.

Other upcoming talks at Morbid Anatomy include "Hierarchies of the Dead: Bodysnatching in Old New York" with Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses (Tuesday, Feb 18); "Selfies At Funerals: Postmortem Photography and Cultural Taboos" with Halli Gomberg (Thursday, Feb 20) and "Death in a Nutshell: Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death" with special guest Bruce Goldfarb, executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland (Thursday, Feb 27).

We also have a field trip on Saturday, March 29 to Baltimore with tour guide--and rogue taxidermist-- Robert Marbury, whose Baltimore credentials include a star turn as "Angelic Boyfriend" in John Waters' Cry-Baby. Stops along the way will include The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Baltimore, where assistant to the examiner Bruce Golfarb will lead us on a special tour The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a collection of obsessively detailed miniature dioramic death scenes, hand-crafted in the 1940s and Scarpetta House, a full-sized furnished room donated in which death scenes are staged to train forensic investigators. We will also visit the Great Blacks in Wax Museum and the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, where we will engage in a traditional Cognac toast.

For those more interested in perfecting their arcane skills, we also have a number of excellent classes including Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class (Sunday, Feb 23); Bunny Taxidermy/ Jackalope Class (Sunday, March 2); Melanistic Pheasant Taxidermy Class (Saturday, March 8); Squirrel Taxidermy Class (Sunday, March 23rd); Bat Skeleton in Glass Dome Workshop (Sunday, March 26); and Winged Rats or Guinea Pigs Taxidermy Class (Sunday, April 6th),

Full details follow on all events and workshops follow; hope very much to see you at one or more of these terrific events! You can also always find a full list of events on our Facebook page by clicking here.

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Morbid Curiosity: A Morbid Anatomy Singles Night
Hosted by Daisy Tainton with DJ Blake Schwarzenbach, former frontman of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil
Date: Monday, February 10
Time: 8:00
Admission: $15 (includes one free adult beverage)
Tickets can be purchased here.
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Single? Different? Want to meet some like-minded New Yorkers? Do your perspective paramours often tell you you're weird, or ask you why you are so interested in those creepy things? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, we hope you'll join us this Valentine's Day week for Morbid Curiosity: A Morbid Anatomy Singles Night!

More info here.
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Women Who Bite: Chastity Belts, Castration Anxiety and Feminism: Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Tuesday, February 11
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Humankind's earliest cultures were matriarchal in nature. The advent of agrarian civilization witnessed women’s power gradually devalued by a growing patriarchy. Both Western and Eastern cultures have folklore and art history attesting to the leitmotif of the strong, fierce, and aggressively sexual woman rising against oppressive male authority. Tonight’s lecture--just in time for Valentine's Day!--will explore the myths, fables, and visual representations of the ferocious, toothed woman. Such imagery includes: chastity belts (and their development), male castration anxiety, vengeful goddesses, the femme fatale, Amazon warriors, and "vagina dentata." These subjects will be explored in all their frightening, savage, erotic and often humorous incarnations.

More info here.

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The ‘After’ Life: Death in Ancient Egypt: Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date: Thursday, February 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Part of the Death and The Occult in the Ancient World Series
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

When one considers Death and the Occult in the Ancient World, often the first culture that comes to mind is that of the Ancient Egyptians. Known for their elaborate tombs, complicated religious texts, and captivating mummies, the Ancient Egyptian fascination with death has captivated public interest for centuries. This inaugural lecture in our new monthly series will introduce the mortuary beliefs, traditions, and archaeology of the Ancient Egyptians and examine whether or not they were as morbidly focused as they have traditionally been portrayed to be.

More info here.
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Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica: A Special Valentine's Day Event: An illustrated lecture by Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints with drinks and music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, February 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $12
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Tonight, join writer Colin Dickey for a peek into the world of early 20th century mail-order erotica. In order to evade post office censors, smut peddlers like Panurge Press and Falstaff Press were obligated to dress up their offerings with a veneer of scientific dross, resulting in works that were too smutty to be of any real scientific or sociological value, and yet too riddled with academic nonsense to be properly erotic. A curiously forgotten and nearly nonsensical sub-genre, these books exist in between the finely-drawn lines of obscenity and free speech, pornography and literature, and titillation and scientific inquiry. Colin will share the history of these odd publishers and choice examples from his library, including works like White Meat, Praeputii Incisio, Black Opium, The Sword and Womankind, and An Anthropological Cabinet of Curiosities. Come for the lecture, and stay for delicious artisinal cocktails and thematic tunes courtesy of Friese Undine.

More info here.
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An Erotic Guide to Paris at Night, Circa 1936
Illustrated Lecture and Vintage Films with Mel Gordon, author of Voluptious Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin
Date: Saturday, February 15
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Tonight, the night after Valentine's Day, please join Voluptious Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin author Mel Gordon for a highly illustrated lecture in which he traces the standard and atypical paths that international sex tourists followed during the heyday of Paris' most unfettered years. He will also screen rare filmic exposes of luxury brothels, gay and lesbian cabarets, nudist supper clubs, lavish music hall productions, and love cult initiations. The vast majority of the visual materials shown tonight have never been presented since the 1930s and were purchased from private collectors.

More info here.
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Hierarchies of the Dead: Bodysnatching in Old New York
Illustrated lecture by Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses
Date: Tuesday, February 18
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Stealing corpses for anatomical dissection was a way of life for New York’s earliest medical schools. It was even the spark that led to the nation’s first riot, in 1788. But who were the earliest bodysnatchers, how did they operate, and whose graves were they plundering? In this illustrated lecture, Rest in Pieces author Bess Lovejoy will discuss this forgotten chapter of New York’s medical history, with some stops in points South. She’ll also cover some archeological research on the victims of the bodysnatchers, and how they have been remembered in the New York of today.

More info here.
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Selfies At Funerals: Postmortem Photography and Cultural Taboos: An Illustrated Lecture By Halli Gomberg
Date: Thursday, February 20
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Is the phenomenon of “Selfies At Funerals” a new manifestation of social media narcissism, or the last in a long line of older post mortem cultural practices? This talk will explore the complex attitudes towards death and photography over the course of American history, fom its precursors in painted deathbed portraiture, through Victorian postmortem and medical school dissection photographs and into newly emerging technologies. We will examine how society deals with our private and public mourning rituals, and why postmortem remembrance imagery can still be a cultural taboo.

More info here.

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Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman
Date: Sunday, February 23
Time: 12:00pm - 5pm
Admission: $110
SOLD OUT; email morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com to be put on wait list

Location: Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space), 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue ), 11215 Brooklyn, NY

Anthropomorphic taxidermy--a practice in which taxidermied animals are posed as if engaged in human activities--was an artform made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, as profiled by the New York Times, students will learn to create--from start to finish--anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter. Your final project might take the form of a bespectacled, whiskey swilling, top hat tipping mouse; or perhaps a rodent mermaid queen of the burlesque world? With some props and some artful styling, your mouse can become whatever or whomever you want; this is the joy of anthropomorphic taxidermy.

More info here.

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Death in a Nutshell: Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death: Illustrated lecture with Bruce Goldfarb, executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland
Date: Thursday, February 27
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death is an extraordinary collection of miniature dioramic death scenes, hand-crafted in the 1940s in obsessive detail by Frances Glessner Lee. They were -- and still are -- used to train police in the methods of forensic death investigation. Lee, a wealthy socialite with no formal education who in middle age was commissioned by the New Hampshire State Police, is considered the mother of modern, scientific death investigation; she is also said to be the inspiration for the character of Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. Ttonight's illustrated lecture will tell the fascinating story of Frances Glessner Lee and her Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Later, on Saturday, March 29th, join Morbid Anatomy for a special field trip to Baltimore featuring a tour of The Nutshells and the forensic facilities by Mr. Goldfarb. Visits to additional "Charm City" highlights will be organized with the help of our guide, rogue taxidermist and "angelic boyfriend" Robert Marbury."

More info here.
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Bunny Taxidermy/ Jackalope Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday, March 2
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $275
***Tickets must be pre-purchased here
Location: Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space), 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn , NY Subway: 4th Av - 9th Street (R - F - G) 

This class will introduce students to the process and techniques behind more advanced basic small mammal taxidermy. Students will learn how to skin, prep, preserve, mount, and position the animal. Attention will be focused on how to properly split, turn, and position rabbit ears. Basic armatures will be used and custom made forms (made by me) will be provided. Students will learn how to make a custom body for their specimens using an old traditional taxidermy technique of wrapping a body. Using the carcass for reference, students will learn how to build up and craft the bodies. Students encouraged to bring in any props they may want to dress the animal up in. I will provide all specimens, materials, and tools for the class. Each student will leave with his or her own finished mount.

More here.
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Melanistic Pheasant Taxidermy Class-Intermediate level class with Divya Anantharaman
Date: Saturday, March 8
Time: 1 pm - 5pm
Admission: $435
SOLD OUT; email morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com to be put on wait list
Location: Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space), 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn , NY
Limited class size of 3 people

In this exclusive intermediate level workshop, we learn about the melanistic pheasant and classic bird taxidermy. These large, beautiful birds are a mutation of the common pheasant, first observed in the 1800s, and bred as a mutation in the 1920's/30's. Known for their unique coloration, exquisitely patterned feathers and iridescent green/black/purple plumage, these are very special birds!

More info here.
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Squirrel Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday, March 23rd
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $300
Must Pre-Purchase Tickets Here
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424 A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn , NY

This class will introduce students to basic small mammal taxidermy processes. Each student will be provided with his or her own squirrel, which they will skin, flesh, split, and prep for mounting. Students will learn how to make a custom body for their specimens using an old traditional taxidermy technique of wrapping a body. Using the carcass for reference, students will learn how to build up and craft the bodies. Students are encouraged to bring in any props they may want to dress the animal up in. I will provide all specimens, materials, and tools for the class. Each student will leave with his or her own finished mount.

More here.
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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
Date: Sunday, March 26
Time: 1 – 6 PM
Admission: $200
*** Tickets must be pre-purchased here
Location: Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space), 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215. Brooklyn, NY

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities!

More here.

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Morbid Anatomy Baltimore Field-Trip Featuring The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
Date: Saturday, March 29th
Cost: $100 (includes luxury ground transportation in Baltimore and all museum admissions.
Tickets can be found by clicking here

Location: Baltimore, MD
Please note: This price DOES NOT cover bus transportation between New York and Baltimore, or meals. please email morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com with questions.

Today, join Morbid Anatomy for a day of wondrous frolics in “Charm City” with special tour guide--and rogue taxidermist!--Robert Marbury, whose Baltimore credentials include a star turn as Ricky Lake's "Angelic Boyfriend” in John Waters' Cry-Baby.

Stops include The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Baltimore, where assistant to the examiner Bruce Golfarb will lead us on a special tour of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a collection of obsessively detailed miniature dioramic death scenes, hand-crafted in the 1940s and still used to train police in the methods of forensic death investigation; Scarpetta House, a full-sized furnished room donated by mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell in which death scenes are staged to train forensic investigators; the Great Blacks in Wax Museum; and the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, where we will engage in a traditional Cognac toast. Throughout the day, our delightful guide will also share with us his favorite Baltimore sights, and regale us with stories of the secret, fascinating, bizarre and sometimes tragic history of the city known affectionately as "Mobtown.

Full info here.

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Winged Rats or Guinea Pigs Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday, April 6th
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $225
Must Pre-Purchase Tickets Here
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424 A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn , NY

This class will introduce students to basic small mammal taxidermy processes. Each student will be provided with his or her own squirrel, which they will skin, flesh, split, and prep for mounting. Students will learn how to make a custom body for their specimens using an old traditional taxidermy technique of wrapping a body. Using the carcass for reference, students will learn how to build up and craft the bodies. Students are encouraged to bring in any props they may want to dress the animal up in. I will provide all specimens, materials, and tools for the class. Each student will leave with his or her own finished mount.

More here.

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Full list and more information on all events can be found here. More on the Morbid Anatomy Art Academy can be found here.

Top image: Vintage Valentine's Day card sourced here