Beauty and Anatomy; Necrophilia Laws in the USA; And From "Holy Gore" to Santa Muerte: Upcoming Events at The Morbid Anatomy Museum

The Morbid Anatomy Museum is now open every day (including tomorrow, the 4th of July!) from 12-6 (excepting Tuesdays), and we would like to announce a number of events which we hope will tempt you to come out and see the new space!

First off, we hope to see you at our (back by popular demand!) singles night, taking place this Monday July 7th, and excitingly supported by our sponsor Hendrick's Gin.

We also have three offerings from this month's "Artist and Anatomist in Residence" Emily Evans, fresh in from her home in London. Over the course of her stay, she will be speaking on "The Beauty of Anatomy in Contemporary Art" (Wednesday, July 9); leading a free (!!!) Kid’s Anatomy Workshop (Sunday, July 20); and hosting A Night of Art, Anatomy and Pop Culture with Street Anatomy’s Vanessa Ruiz of the blog Street Anatomy (Friday, July 25th).

We have also just added a number of illustrated lectures by one of our favorite bon vivants of the Powerpoint stage, Morbid Anatomy August Scholar in Residence John Troyer, Ph.D. of the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath. Over the course of his tenure, he will elucidate us on "Future Dead Body Technology" (Wednesday, August 6); Memorial tattoos (Morbid Ink: The Permanence of Memorial Tattoos; Wednesday, August 13); the fascinating world of necrophilia laws in the USA (Abusing the Corpse: Understanding Necrophilia Laws in the USA; Wednesday, August 20); and "The Future of Death" (The Future is Death and Death is the Future: Technology, Politics, and the Dead Body; Wednesday, August 27). Stay tuned also for a film night and other offerings to be added shortly.

Other newly announced events include the heavily illustrated lecture "From 'Holy Gore' to Santa Muerte: Death and Catholicism in Mexico" by Kurt Hollander of Several Ways to Die in Mexico City (Tuesday, July 22); a narrated magic lantern show with original 1880s projectors, moving panoramas, and more (The Arctic Theatre Royal, A Magic Lantern Show by The Wonder Show; Friday, August 1) and two lectures by "Egyptologist in Residence" Ava Forte Vitali of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ancestor Cults in the Ancient World (Thursday, August 28) and Fur-Ever Friends: Animal Mummies (Thursday, September 25).

Also coming up are such events as The Skeleton Crew: Forensic Science and the Identification of the Unnamed Dead: an Illustrated lecture and catered book party with MIT's Deborah Halber and retired NYPD detective sergeant John Paolucci (Tuesday, July 8); Demonically Possessed Cats, an illustrated lecture with Dr. Paul Koudounaris (Thursday, August 7); Industrial Ladies: An Illustrated Lecture by Evan Michelson of Science Channel's Oddities (Thursday, September 11); Halloween: The Curious Story of America's Most Horrible Holiday with Lesley Bannatyne, author of Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History (Sunday, October 26th); Monsters on the Brain: A Natural History of Horror, an illustrated lecture with Professor Stephen T. Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads and On Monsters (Thursday, October 30); AND the second iteration of our Mexican Day of the Dead field trip: Muerte en Mexico curated, organized and guided by Mexican writer and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín (October 31-November 4; must register by July 15).

And, for those who prefer to learn arcane skills, we have a number of excellent workshops including Snake Skeleton Articulation with Evolution Store Skeleton Preparator Amanda Lee (THIS Saturday, July 5th); Butterfly Preservation Workshop with Taxidermist in Residence Divya Anantharaman (THIS Sunday, July 6); Frederik Ruysch Wet Specimen Workshop (Sunday, July 13th); The Skull Beneath the Skin: Drawing the Human Skull with NYU's Chris Muller with real human skulls loaned by Ryan Mathew Cohn of TV's Oddities (Saturday, July 19); a Dissection and Drawing Workshop with Real Anatomical Specimens with physical anthropologist Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD (Saturday, July 26) and a Carbon Dust Drawing Workshop, Featuring Real Anatomical Specimens Drawing class with Board Certified Medical Illustrator Marie Dauenheimer, MA, CMI (Sunday, July 27); a class in the Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann (Saturday, August 2); Anthropomorphic Mouse (One or Two Headed!) Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman (Sunday, August 3);  and finally, Fancy Chicken Taxidermy Class with Taxidermist in Residence Divya Ananthamaran (Saturday, August 23).

More info follows on all events. For longer descriptions, visit our brand new website calendar (!!!) by clicking here. For a good introduction to The Museum and its inaugural exhibit, check out this piece in last week's New York Times. Hope to see you at the new museum soon!

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Snake Skeleton Articulation with Evolution Store Skeleton Preparator Amanda Lee
Date: THIS Saturday, July 5th
Time: 12pm to 6pm
Admission: $200 (Tickets here)

In this class, students will learn about the techniques and tricks of processing and articulating skeletons—including bone defleshing methods, chemical cleaning, and an overview of skeletal anatomy as it pertains to articulation—while posing and framing a specimen of their very own.

More here.

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Butterfly Preservation Workshop with Taxidermist in Residence Divya Anantharaman
Date: THIS Sunday, July 6th
Time: 12pm – 3pm
Price: $90 (includes all materials for use in class, students go home with their own prepared butterfly, a spreading board that can be used for future projects, display case for the finished piece, and the knowledge to create their own pieces in the future)
Tickets here

In this beginners class, students will learn everything about basic butterfly preparation. Students will also build their very own spreading boards for use in class and beyond and leave class with their own finished piece and the knowledge to make more in the future.

More here.

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Morbid Curiosity: A Morbid Anatomy Singles Night
Date: Monday, July 7th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $15 (Sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin! Tickets here)

A Singles night for the Morbid Anatomy community. Games, drinks, fun and possible mayhem!

More here.

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The Skeleton Crew: Forensic Science and the Identification of the Unnamed Dead
Illustrated lecture and book party with MIT’s Deborah Halber and retired NYPD detective sergeant John Paolucci
Date: Tuesday, July 8
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)
***Copies of Skeleton Crew will be available for sale and signing

Tonight join author author Deborah Halber and retired NYPD detective sergeant John Paolucci for an evening exploring what happens when human remains—victims of homicides, suicides and accidents–cannot be identified. The talk, book signing and wine-and-cheese reception mark the release of Deborah Halber’s narrative nonfiction book, "The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases."

More here.

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The Beauty of Anatomy in Contemporary Art
An Illustrated Lecture with Morbid Anatomy Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans
Date: Wednesday, July 9
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

Anatomy has become a hot topic in contemporary art over the last decade. But just what is it that makes a great piece of anatomical art? And what makes anatomical art so fascinating to some and so disturbing to others? In tonight’s talk, Morbid Anatomy Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans will investigate these questions via a survey anatomical artworks ranging from the historically beautiful to the contemporary controversial, such as the plastinated bodies of Gunther Von Hagens and the provocative works of Damien Hirst.

More here.

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From Hippocrates to Freud: Highlights from Columbia University’s Health Sciences Library, a Guided Tour with Stephen E. Novak, head of archives and special collectionsDate: Saturday, July 12th
Time: 3pm to 4.30pm
Admission: $15 (Tickets here)

Special field trip to Columbia University’s Health Sciences Library for a guided tour of their historical medical books with Stephen E. Novak, head of archives and special collections.

More here.

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Frederik Ruysch Wet Specimen Workshop, with Mark Batelli, Wet Specimen Restorer at Obscura Antiques
Date: Sunday, July 13th
Time: 1:00 PM – 6 PM
Admission $100 (Limited to 8 students; Tickets here)

In this workshop, artist and wet specimen restorer Mark Batelli will teach students how to preserve and prepare specimens in an educational, allegorical and artful manner inspired by the work of Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch (1638 – 1731). 

More here.

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Understanding the Aspective Art of Ancient Egypt
Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date: Thursday, July 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

This illustrated lecture with Egyptologist in Residence Ava Forte Vitali will explain the cultural reasoning behind this style of depiction, the link between Egyptian art and the written word, and will provicde you with the knowledge to interpret almost any piece of Egyptian art, and impress friends on museum visits for years to come! 

More here.

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The Skull Beneath the Skin: Drawing the Human Skull with NYU’s Chris Muller
Skull drawing with real human skulls loaned by Ryan Mathew Cohn of TV’s Oddities
Date: Saturday, July 19
Time: 1 – 4 PM
Admission: $30 (Tickets here)
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy offers a workshop on drawing the skull, both from observation and from the imagination."

More here.

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Free Kid’s Anatomy Workshop with Morbid Anatomy Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans
Date: Sunday, July 20
Time: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Admission: FREE

Today, stop by The Morbid Anatomy Museum to enjoy an excellent cup of coffee and browse of the museum while Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans teaches your kids how to make their own anatomical artworks!

More here.

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From “Holy Gore” to Santa Muerte: Death and Catholicism in Mexico
Illustrated lecture with Kurt Hollander, author/photographer of Several Ways to Die in Mexico City: An Autobiography of Death in Mexico City
Date: Tuesday, July 22
Time: 8 pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

In tonight’s heavily illustrated lecture, Kurt Hollander–Mexico City-based author and photographer of Several Ways to Die in Mexico City–will discuss images of death in Mexico city, beginning with what he terms Mexico’s “holy gore”–the unusually macabre and violent religious statues–and ending with la Santa Muerte, Mexico’s newest cult saint worshiped by the criminal class and the disenfranchised and loathed by the Catholic church.

More here.

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Street Anatomy: A Night of Art, Anatomy and Pop Culture with Street Anatomy’s Vanessa Ruiz
An Illustrated Lecture with Vanessa Ruiz, creator of the blog Street Anatomy
Date: Friday, July 25th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

Tonight, join Morbid Anatomy Museum Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans and Street Anatomy founder Vanessa Ruiz for an illustrated discussion which will range from the current state of anatomical art and its expanding community to the ways in which fostering relationships with artists helps connect and strengthen this niche subject.

More here.

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Dissection and Drawing Workshop with Real Anatomical Specimens Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD
Date: Saturday, July 26
Time: 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Admission: $60 (Tickets here)

In today’s workshop we will dissect and draw human hands (Homo sapiens) and the forelimb of Didelphis virginiana, the North American opossum. The opossum is considered to be a good model for a basl – i.e. early or original – mammal. Many comparative skeletal materials will be available for examination and illustration, and additional specimens may also be available.

More here.

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Carbon Dust Drawing Workshop Featuring Real Anatomical Specimens with Marie Dauenheimer
Date: Sunday, July 27
Time: 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Class size limited to 15
Admission: $75 (includes materials cost)
Tickets here

In today's workshop, learn the art of carbon dust illustration, a technique perfected by medical artist Max Brodel at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the late 19th century. This technique–which, until the digital age, was an essential component of medical illustration education–allows the artist to create luminous, textural, three-dimensional drawings by layering carbon dust on prepared paper.

More here.

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The Arctic Theatre Royal, A Magic Lantern Show by The Wonder Show
Narrated Magic Lantern Show with original projectors, moving panoramas, and more
Date: Friday, August 1
Time: 8 pm
Admission: $15 (Tickets here) 

The Arctic Theatre Royal is a narrated magic lantern show incorporating original 1880s magic lantern projectors, a hand-cranked moving panorama, recorded music, and other media. The piece was inspired by materials found in the Providence Athenaeum’s Travel and Exploration collection.

More here.

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The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry
Workshop with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Saturday, August 2nd
Time: 1 – 5 PM
Admission: $100 (Tickets here)

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

More here.

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Anthropomorphic Mouse (One or Two Headed!) Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman
Date: Sunday August 3rd
Time: 12pm – 5pm
Price: $110 one headed/$125 two headed (includes all materials for use in class, students go home with their own finished piece, and the knowledge to create their own pieces in the future)
Tickets here 

In this class, students will learn to create–from start to finish–anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter.

More here.

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Future Dead Body Technology
Illustrated lecture by John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence
Date: Wednesday, August 6
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

This illustrated talk with John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence will discuss the present and future technologies surrounding the human corpse.

More here.

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Demonically Possessed Cats: Illustrated Lecture with Dr. Paul Koudounaris
Date: Thursday, August 7
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)
**Copies of Empire of Death and Heavenly Bodies will be available for sale and signing 

Tonight's illustrated lecture by Dr. Paul Koudounaris--author of Empire of Death and Heavenly Bodies--will trace the history of demonically-possessed cats. Felines were once considered by theologians to be easy prey for demons, who could enter their bodies and wreck incredible havoc on mankind. And did you know . . . demonically-possessed cats are still believed to be with us today!

More here.

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Morbid Ink: The Permanence of Memorial Tattoos
Illustrated lecture by John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence
Date: Wednesday, August 13
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here) 

This illustrated talk with John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence will discuss the fascinating world of "memorial tattoos," or tattoos in memory of the deceased.

More here.

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Abusing the Corpse: Understanding Necrophilia Laws in the USA
Illustrated lecture by John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence
Date: Wednesday, August 20
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here) 

This illustrated talk with John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence will discuss the surprising world of laws around necrophilia.

More here.

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Fancy Chicken Taxidermy Class with Taxidermist in Residence Divya Ananthamaran
Date: Saturday August 23rd
Time: 12pm – 6pm
Price: $400 (includes all materials)
Tickets here 

In this workshop, students will be immersed in the world of the fancy chicken and classic bird taxidermy. They will leave class with a finished piece and knowledge to make their own pieces in the future.

More here.

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The Future is Death and Death is the Future: Technology, Politics, and the Dead Body
Illustrated lecture by John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence
Date: Wednesday, August 27
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

This illustrated lecture with John Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence will explore the present and the future technologies of the dead body.

More here.

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Ancestor Cults in the Ancient World
Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date: Thursday, August 28
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

This illustrated lecture with Egyptologist in Residence Ava Forte Vitali will discuss the many different ways the dead interacted with the living in ancient Egypt and the way the living interacted with the dead, from household cults, to festivals, and even a fairly active postal system of letters to the afterworld.

More here.

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Industrial Ladies
Illustrated Lecture by Evan Michelson, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence, TV's Oddities
Date: Thursday, September 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

Illustrated lecture about uncanny and fascinating early 19th wax department store mannequins by Evan Michelson, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence, TV's Oddities.

More here.

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Fur-Ever Friends: Animal Mummies
Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date: Thursday, September 25
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here) 

This illustrated lecture with Egyptologist in Residence Ava Forte Vitali will discuss the variety of reasons the Egyptians had for mummifying animals, the ways in which they did it, and sometimes – the ways in which they scammed their unsuspecting clients!

More here.

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Halloween: The Curious Story of America’s Most Horrible Holiday
Illustrated Lecture by Lesley Bannatyne, author of Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History
Date: Sunday, October 26th
Time: 8:00 PM (Tickets here)
Admission: $8 

Tonight, join Halloween scholar Lesley Bannatyne as she traces our onetime children’s holiday-turned-blood-and-guts carnival from its tiny origins in northwestern Europe through its recent explosion in popularity in the States.

More here.

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Monsters on the Brain: A Natural History of Horror
Illustrated lecture with Professor Stephen T. Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads and On Monsters
Date: Thursday, October 30
Time: 8 pm
Admission: $8 (Tickets here) 

In this talk Professor Stephen Asma–author of On Monsters–will use horror as an interdisciplinary bridge between humanities and scientific methodologies —a kind of case study for triangulating philosophy, psychology and biology. Recent research into the neuroscience of fear and cognition will be applied to some of the perennial monsters of our imagination.

More here.

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Muerte en Mexico: A Special Field Trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca for for Day of the Dead to Visit Sites Important to the History of Death in Mexico
Dates: October 31 – November 4 2014 (**Must reserve by July 15)
 $675.00 USD (includes all hotels in double-rooms, luxury ground transportation, museum admissions, guided visits, and breakfasts; airfares not included); email info@borderlineprojects.com to reserve a space. Please send payments via PayPal to: info@borderlineprojects.com.

A 4-day trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca for Day of the Dead; curated, organized and guided by Mexican writer and scholar Salvador Olguín for Borderline Projects, and Morbid Anatomy. Includes day of the dead celebrations, markets, churches, luxury bus travel, hotels, tickets to museums and breakfasts.

More here.

Images top to bottom:

1. Jesus Statue, Mexico; Kurt Hollander
2. “The Anatomist (Der Anatom),” Gabriel von Max, 1869
3. Lantern slide from The Arctic Theatre Royal, A Magic Lantern Show by The Wonder Show

Oaxaca: A Decapitated Native American Princess and Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead Trip : A Guest Post by Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín

Following is a guest post by Morbid Anatomy Library scholar in residence--and guide of the Morbid Anatomy annual Mexican Day of the Dead trip--Salvador Olguín. This year's trip will be take us to Mexico City and Oaxaca where we will visit Day of the Dead celebrations, epic churches, museums, markets, and much more. Oaxaca is famous for hosting some of the most lavish and unusual Day of the Dead altars, so this is sure to be a very special trip. We very much hope you'll consider joining us!

The 2014 Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead trip runs from October 31 through November 4th, and the deadline for registering is July 15. You can find out more about it the trip--and secure yourself a spot!--by clicking here. You can see photos from last year's trip by clicking here.

Oaxaca: A Decapitated Native American Princess

Oaxaca de Juárez, located in Mexico’s southern State of Oaxaca, is, in fact, a very ancient city. Humans have been present in the area since at least 7,500 BC, and some of its most prominent megalithic structures date from ca. 500 BC. The city’s official coat of arms features the image of the head of a decapitated woman, and is based on a legend from the Colonial era. Donají was a Zapotec princess who, according to legend, fell in love with Nucano, a prince from the rival Mixtec people. Mixtecs and Zapotecs had been fighting over the territory that is now Oaxaca way before it was conquered by the Aztecs and, subsequently, the Spaniards, and fighting continued well into the first decades of the Viceroyalty of the New Spain –i.e. Colonial Mexico, created in 1519 after the fall of the Aztec Empire. During one of these numerous confrontations, Donají was taken captive, converted to Christianity by recently baptized Mixtecs, and was finally decapitated. Her legend is still reenacted today during the festival of La Guelaguetza in Oaxaca.

A place of legend, Oaxaca has also played a key role in Mexico’s modern history. It was the birthplace of Benito Juarez, a Zapotec lawyer and liberal politician who went on to become one of the first Native American presidents in the American continent. He also famously overthrew an Imperial government, dubbed the Second Mexican Empire, imposed by Mexico’s Conservative Party on the back of a full-scale French invasion of the country. Juarez succeeded in his task after seeking weapons and support from Mexican Americans living in California, nicknamed Californios, and after being backed by a US government that had just come out of the American Civil War, and which imposed an 1866 naval blockade preventing further French troops to arrive in Mexico.

Today, the traces of Oaxaca’s violent history can still be felt, as well as the heritage of the many indigenous peoples that have lived, and still live in the city. This heritage can be specially felt during the celebration of the Days of the Dead, which take a prominent role in the lives of its citizens during the month of November. If you want to experience Oaxaca personally, this year I will be organizing a Special Tour to celebrate Day of the Dead in Mexico, together with the Morbid Anatomy Museum. You can find more information about the tour here.

Image: Day of the Dead in Oaxaca by Boris Spider; found here.

Morbid Anatomy Museum Grand Opening Celebration and Art of Mourning Exhibition Preview This Friday, June 27th!

Hand colored daguerreotype of a mourning woman from
the collection of Stanley B. Burns MD, author of
Sleeping Beauty and founder of The Burns Archive.

We are beyond excited to announce that the Morbid Anatomy Museum will, at long last, open its doors to the public this Saturday, June 28th at noon! If you arrive right on time, you might be on hand for the official ribbon cutting accompanied by, I am told, complimentary prosecco and hors d'ouevres.

From Saturday on, the Morbid Anatomy Museum will be open from 12-6 every day except for Tuesdays and holidays, and the price of admission will gain you access to both the newly installed Morbid Anatomy Library and our inaugural temporary exhibition "The Art of Mourning." This exhibition will showcase artworks--many of them never before exhibited--relating to mourning culture from the 18th to the 20th century including postmortem paintings and photography; hair art shadowboxes and jewelry; death masks; spirit photography; and mourning china drawn mainly from the astounding private collection of Stanley B. Burns MD, author of Sleeping Beauty and founder of The Burns Archive. Also included are pieces from the collections of Karen Bachmann, Jennifer Berman, Elizabeth A. Burns, Alice Lease Dana, Tracy Hurley Martin, Amber Jolliffe Maykut, Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn. The show is curated by Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein and scholar in residence Evan Michelson.

This Friday, June 27th, we would also like to cordially invite you to a special grand opening celebration and preview where you can take in the exhibitions before they open to the general public while also enjoying live music from violin duo Miolina, DJed tunes by Friese Undine, traditional mourning foods by Rachel Rideout, complementary wine and hors d’oeuvres from Runner and Stone, a special tour of the exhibit by Stanley B. Burns, and a spirit photo booth where you can have your photo taken with a spirit of your choice.

Full details for the party follow; Admission is $50 ($35 for Morbid Anatomy Museum Members). You can purchase tickets here and become a Morbid Anatomy Museum member by clicking here.

Hope very much to see you there! And thanks so very, very much to all of you who supported this project; it could literally not have been happened without you, and we can't wait to welcome you to the new space!

Morbid Anatomy Museum Grand Opening Celebration
Art of Mourning exhibition preview party with hors d'oeuvres, drinks, music and curator and collector talks
Date: Friday, June 27
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $50 ($35 for Morbid Anatomy Museum Members; become a member today by clicking here)
Purchase tickets here
The Morbid Anatomy Museum : 424A 3rd Ave (Corner of 7th St), Brooklyn, NY 11215

Please join us for a special opening celebration for The Morbid Anatomy Museum! Enjoy live music from violin duo Miolina, DJed music by Friese Undine, and traditional mourning foods as well as complementary wine and hors d’oeuvres from Runner and Stone. There will also be spirit photo booth where you can have your photo taken with a spirit of your choice.

Attending this party will also get you an exclusive sneak peek of the museum and our our inaugural exhibition "The Art of Mourning," which will showcase decorative arts relating to mourning culture from the 18th to the 20th century featuring never before exhibited artifacts drawn from the private collection of Stanley B. Burns MD, Technical Consultant to HBO-Cinemax series,"The Knick," author of Sleeping Beauty, founder of The Burns Archive. Dr. Burns will give a special walk through of the exhibition, and curators Joanna Ebenstein and Evan Michelson and many of the other collectors will be on hand to show their pieces and answer your questions.

Dentures, Death and Fashion: Waterloo Teeth: 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 seventh post from that series--entitled "Dentures, Death and Fashion: Waterloo Teeth"-- commemorates The Battle of Waterloo, which took place 199 years ago today--June 18th, 1815.

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

Teeth have always been a commodity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the price for healthy human teeth was at a premium. They were hotly sought after by dentists who used them to replace the lost ones of their wealthy clients. With sugar consumption skyrocketing, the Georgian upper classes began to lose their teeth at an enormous rate and custom dentures were a matter of function and fashion.

These replacement teeth were most commonly made from animal ivory which deteriorated rapidly in the mouth with no enamel to protect them. Human teeth were a more attractive but perhaps unsavory option. In the 18th century, these ‘natural’ teeth were usually acquired from executed criminals, bodies from the Resurrection men, or pulled from dentist’s patients. This was all changed during the Peninsular Wars in the early 19th century where young, healthy men were being killed- an ideal ground for the tooth hunters. The famous surgeon Sir Astley Cooper (1768-1841) is known to have sent a man behind the battles in 1814 to prise the teeth from soldiers’ mouths. His servant famously wrote to him, ‘Only let there be such a battle and there will be no want of teeth; I’ll draw them as fast as the men are knocked down.’

Cooper got his wish on the 18th of June 1815 when the French army was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Over 51,000 men lost their lives on the field, but their loss was the dentists’ gain. An enormous surplus of human teeth flooded the market. These battlefield teeth quickly picked up the moniker ‘Waterloo teeth’ and even had a certain appeal. Genuine ‘Waterloo teeth’ was a draw for the discerning lady or gentleman looking for a high quality denture.

The Odontological Collection holds a number of dentures with natural teeth from the 19th century, but the only ones we can be certain came from the fields at Waterloo are a collection donated in 1950 by the surgeon and archaeologist Eliot Cecil Curwen (RCSOM/M 30.2). While this may seem quite late, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that the technology for false teeth was able to steal the business away from the ‘genuine’ article.

Images:

1. "Scotland Forever!" Lady Elizabeth Butler, 1881, depicting the charge of the Royal North British Dragoons (The Scots Greys) at the Battle of Waterloo. Found here.
2. RCSOM/M 30.2: Teeth removed from bodies after Battle of Waterloo, 1815. These teeth were drawn from the bodies of soldiers who died at the battlefield of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

Ticket to an Anatomical Lecture with Cupids and Human Skull, 1809

Ticket to an anatomical lecture given by Doctor Alexander Ramsay (ca. 1754-1824), dated 1809, which granted Samuel A. Bradley Esquire, "admission to 'Anatomy and Physiology or the 1st Course No. 13' which likely included a live dissection of a cadaver."

Found here.

Vesalius Continuum: Conference Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of Andreas Vesalius: Zakynthos, Greece; September 4-8, 2014

I am delighted to be speaking as part of "Vesalius Continuum," a conference celebrating the 500th anniversary of "father of modern anatomy" Andreas Vesalius! Organized by friends Pascale Pollier and Dr. Ann Van de Velde, the "Vesalius Continuum" will take place on the Greek island of Zakynthos (where Vesalius dies in 1564) from September 4-8, and will host a wonderful mix of scientists and artists, medical historians, art historians, medical artists and contemporary artists.

Full conference lineup fellows; for more--and to register!--click here. Hope very much to see you there!

Vesalius Continuum Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of Andreas Vesalius
Conference Program
Zakynthos, Greece September 4-8 2014

Thursday, 4 September 2014
10.00: gathering of the officials, speakers and guests
10.30: Opening Ceremony (hosted by Theo Dirix)
10.35: Greetings of Welcome by  Mr Stelios Bozikis, Mayor of Zakynthos; H.E. Marc Van den Reeck, Ambassador of Belgium in Athens; Pascale Pollier, President BIOMAB and AEIMS
10.55: Greek representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education and Tourism
11.15: Key-note speaker: Stefanos Geroulanos, MD, PhD, Professor of Surgery, University of Zurich, Prof emeritus History of Medicine, University of Ioannina, President
11.45: Welcome drink and canapes (hosted by Dr. Stephen Joffe)
13.15 – 14.00: Unveiling of the new monument sculpted by Richard Neave and Pascale Pollier and Plinth with Vesalius coat of arms sculpted by Chantal Pollier and Inauguration
17.00 – 19.30: Round Table: "Traveling through time with a camera in Zakynthos:,
Vesalius and the healers in his footsteps" chaired by: Katerina Demeti, Director of the Museum of D. Solomos and Katerina Kabassi, Head of the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, TEI of Ionian Islands

Friday, 5 September 2014 / morning session 09:00-12:30
Session 1: Andreas Vesalius – The Life.
Chairs: Stephen Joffe (USA) and Pavlos Plessas (GR)
Speakers:
09.00 – 09.20: Raffaele De Caro - Vesalius’ time in Padova
09.20 – 09.40: Theodoor Goddeeris - Itinerarium Andreae Vesalii
09.40 – 10.00: Maurits Biesbrouck - The last months of Andreas Vesalius
10.00 – 10.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee break
11.00 – 11.20: Pavlos Plessas - Powerful indications that Vesalius died from scurvy
11.20 – 11.40: Sylviane Dederix- The Quest for the Grave, a G.I.S of the vicinity of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church
11.40 – 12.00: Omer Steeno - Franciscus and Anna: Vesalius’ Brother and Sister in the Spotlight
12.00 – 12.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Lunch break

Topics: The details of Vesalius’ life were established, to a considerable extent, in Charles O’Malley’s biography published in 1964 on the 400th anniversary of his death and in a later work by Stephen Joffe. However, much recent original historical work (by Steeno, Biesbrouck Goddeeris and Plessas) has focused on the circumstances of his last voyage, his death and his burial place on the island (The Quest for the Grave: Pantokrator or Santa Maria delle Grazia?). Presentation of a G.I.S. by Sylviane Dederix of the Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.) and Institute for Mediterranean Studies (I.M.S.) (deputy director Apostolos Sarris) and Pavlos Plessas, seconded by EBSA, the Belgian School in Athens (director Jan Driessen), sponsored by Agfa Healthcare and coordinated by Theo Dirix, will be made by Sylviane Dederix (F.O.R.T.H., UCL). An attempt is made to identify Vesalius’s cause of death (Pavlos Plessas).

Friday, 5 September 2014 / afternoon session 14:00 – 17:30
Session 2: Andreas Vesalius- The Work.
Chairs: Vivian Nutton (UK) and Sachiko Kusukawa (UK).
Speakers:
14.00 – 14.20: Guy Cobolet – Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica in context
14.20 – 14.40: Daniel Garrison - Vesalius’ Epistle on the China Root (1546): The Recovering Humanist
14.40 – 15.00: Jacqueline Vons - Vivitur ingenio
15.00 – 15.30: Discussion
15.30 – 16.00: Coffee break
16.00 – 16.20: Stephane Velut.-Vesalius’ Anatomical Observations
16.20 – 16.40: Vivian Nutton - Vesalius and his Annotations
16.40 – 17.00: David J. Williams - Vesalius at Cambridge
17.00 – 17.30: Discussion

Topics: The Fabrica (1543) will of course be the central focus. There are two new developments of special interest concerning what is rightly considered to be one of the great treasures of Western civilisation. A second edition has recently been discovered which scholarly analysis (by Nutton) suggests was annotated by Vesalius himself in preparation for a never published third edition. Karger, located in Basel where the original was published, are bringing out a new English translation (by Garrison and Hast) to coincide with the quincentenary. Attention will also be directed toward his other works such as the Epitome and the China Root Epistle.

20.30: Open Air Concert with Beatriz Macias (flute, voice), Yannick Van De Velde (piano) and Roeland Henkens (trumpet), at the Church of Faneromeni, built in the 17th C, destroyed by the earthquake of 1953, but restored following its original design. The concert opens a tour on the Ionian Islands as part of the cultural cycle: Things from Belgium.

Saturday, 6 September 2014 / morning session 09:00-12:30
Session 3: The art of human anatomy: Renaissance to 21st century
Chairs: Brian Hurwitz ( UK) and Ruth Richardson (UK).
Speakers:
09.00 – 09.20: Robrecht van Hee – Vesalius’s long term impact
09.20 – 09.40: Francis Wells – Leonardo’s working heart
09.40 – 10.00: Roberta Ballestriero – Three dimensional anatomy
10.00 – 10.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee break
11.00 – 11.20: Ruth Richardson – Gray’s Anatomy
11.20 – 11.40: Paolo Mazzarello and Valentina Cani- Golgi and the fine structure of the nervous system
11.40 – 12.00: Marco Catani- the art of brain imaging
12.00 – 12.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Lunch break

Topics: Relations between the art and science of anatomy from the time of Vesalius to the present will be considered with particular emphasis on the role of the medical artist and the changing nature of anatomical illustration over the last five centuries. Pivotal changes in the art of anatomy will be examined including the evolution of media and brain imaging from Golgi to Geschwind.

Saturday, 6 September 2014 /afternoon session 14:00-17:30
Session 4: 21st century anatomy teaching and learning Quo Vadis?
Chairs: Peter Abrahams (UK) and Francis van Glabbeek (BE).
Speakers:
14.00 – 14.20: Bernard Moxham – A modern way of learning gross anatomy/dissection by the students
14.20 – 14.40: Susan Standring - Grays anatomy: past, present and future roles of a major reference book
14.40 – 15.00: Shane Tubbs - Translational research: can surgery focus anatomical research and education- the reverse of Vesalius’ time?
15.00 – 15.20: Marios Loukas - Radiology and imaging : a servant of anatomists or shining light of clinical anatomy education?
15.20 – 15.40: Discussion
15.40 – 16.00: Coffee break
16.00 – 16.20: Robert Trelease – Ideal world or not: designing modern anatomy teaching and facilities for meeting changing demands in evolving curricula.
16.20 – 16.40: Richard Turnstall - Latest technology: how can emerging technologies enhance anatomy teaching and learning and has 3D technology got an important future role?
16.40 – 17.00: Tom Lewis – Mobile technology and medical Apps in modern anatomy education: an innovative replacement for the cadaver experience?
17.00 – 17.30: Questions and discussion-Final summary
Speakers all Sponsored by: St. George's University, Grenada, West Indies

Saturday, 6 September 2014 /evening 19:00-20:00
Film: ‘Do we feel with our brain and think with our heart?' by Jan Fabre and Giacomo Rizzolatti

Film: Fabrica Vitae by Sofie Hanegreefs and Jelle Jansens

Sunday, 7 September 2014 / morning session 09:00-12:30
Session 5: 21st century art of human anatomy.
Chair: Ann Van de Velde (BE).
Speakers:
09.00 – 09.20: Eleanor Crook – Depicting a mechanism of life: why the dissected body will not lie down and die.
09.20 – 09.40: Rachael Allen – Project ANATOME: when artist meets anatomy education.
09.40 – 10.00: Margot Cooper and Catherine Sultzmann- Staying ahead of the curve: the future of 3D models and the past from which they developed
10.00 – 10.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee break
11.00 – 11.20: Lisa Temple-Cox and Glenn Harcourt – “It’s my own invention”. Looking glass and speculum: an anatomical Alice.
11.20 – 11.40: Tonya Hines - Open Access Publishing: The Role of Medical Illustrators in Open Science
11.40 – 12.00: Lucy Lyons – Drawing parallels
12.00 – 12.30: Discussion
10.30 – 11.00: Lunch break

Topics: The role of the medical artist in the 21st century will be addressed together with strategies for the education of medical artists and medical students. The wider field of medical art in the forensic field, in the research field and in the publishing world and literature will be explored, and a close look taken at European ‘Art and Science’ courses and collaborations.

Sunday, 7 September 2014 / afternoon session 14:00-17:00
Session 6: Fabrica Vitae; the stuff of life: A perception of the human body seen through the eye of the contemporary artist
Chairs: Pascale Pollier (BE) and Martin Kemp (UK).
Speakers:
14.00 – 14.20: Stelarc - Engineering aliveness and affect in humanoid robots.
14.20 – 14.40: Nina Sellars- The optics of anatomy and light
14.40 – 15.00: Mara Haseltine – Geotherapy, Art from the Nano to the Geo : Art that addresses the link between our biological and cultural evolution.
15.00 – 15.30: Discussion
15.30 – 16.00: Coffee break
16.00 – 16.20: Joanna Ebenstein – The Morbid Anatomy Museum: A new institution devoted to art and medicine, death and culture, and the things which fall between the cracks
16.20 – 16.40: Andrew Carnie – A change of heart
16.40 – 17.00: Film; Fabrica Vitae by Jelle Jansens and Sofie Hanegreefs. (Andere
Wereld films)
17.00 – 17.30: Discussion

Topics: A session devoted to a variety of cultural events at the interface between the human body, science and technology, sci art, the cyborg body, quantum physics, encompassing performance art, theatre, music and poetry.

Special Plenary Lecture
17.30: Martin Kemp ‘Rhetorics of the real in the Fabrica: Vesalius’s graphic and textual strategies’

Sunday, 7 September 2014 / evening 18:30 -19:30
18:30 – 19:30: Private View exhibition Fabrica Vitae with Champagne reception

Monday, 8 September 2014 / morning session 09:00-10:00
09:00- 10:00: Annual General Meeting for
MAA, AEIMS, and other associations

With thanks to our sponsors

• Paulsen Media BV
• Dr. and Mrs Stephen N. Joffe, USA
• The Wellcome Trust
• The Vesalius Trust
• St George’s University Medical School, Grenada
• Association Européenne des illustrateurs Médicaux et Scientifiques (AEIMS)
• Biological and Medical Art in Belgium (BIOMAB)
• H.E. Marc Van den Reeck, Ambassador of Belgium, Athens
• Theo Dirix, Consul, Embassy of Belgium, Athens
• The Municipality of Zakynthos, Greece
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgium
• The Organizing Committee expresses its gratitude to all organizations and individuals offering advice and support.

Image: Frontispiece to Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1555. Found here.

Call for Papers: Lost Museums Colloquium : Brown University, Providence, RI, May 7 and 8, 2015

I would like to share with you all a very exciting call for papers for an upcoming conference devoted to "lost artifacts, collections and museums" just in from our friends at the Jenks Society for Lost Museums at Brown University. Proposals can take the form of a traditional paper but can also be conceptual, poetic, and artistic, and are due on September 15, 2014. Full details below, and you can find out more here.

Call for Papers: Lost Museums Colloquium

In conjunction with the year-long exhibition project examining Brown University’s lost Jenks Museum, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and the John Carter Brown Library invite paper proposals for a colloquium on lost artifacts, collections and museums. (Other formats—conceptual, poetic, and artistic—are also invited.) The colloquium will be held at Brown University, Providence, RI, May 7 and 8, 2015.

Museums, perhaps more than any other institutions, think in the very long term: collections are forever. But the history of museums is more complicated than that. Museums disappear for many reasons, from changing ideas about what’s worth saving to the devastation of war. Museum collections disappear: deaccessioned, traded away, repatriated, lost to changing interests and the ravages of time.

We are interested in this process of decline and decay, the taphonomy of institutions and collections, as a way of shedding light not only on the history of museums and libraries, but also on the ways in which material things reflect and shape the practices of science and the humanities, and also to help museums think about current and future practices of collections and collections use.

We invite presentations from historians, curators, registrars, and collections managers, as well as from artists and activists, on topics including:

Histories of museums and types of museums: We welcome case studies of museums and categories of museums that are no more. What can we learn from museums that are no more? Cast museums, commercial museums, and dime museums have mostly disappeared. Cabinets of curiosity went out of and back into fashion. Why? What is their legacy?

Artifacts: How do specimens degrade? How have museums come to think of permanence and ephemerality? How do museums use, and “use up” collections, either for research (e.g., destructive sampling), or for education and display; how have they thought about the balance of preservation and use? How can they collect the ephemeral?

Museum collection history: How long does art and artifact really remain in the museum? Might the analysis of museum databases cast new light on the long-term history and use of collections?

“Lost and found” in the museum: How are art and artifacts “rediscovered” in museums? How do old collections regain their importance, both in artistic revivals and in new practices of “mining” the museum as artists finding new uses for old objects?

Museum collections policy: How have ideas about deaccessioning changed? How should they change? How do new laws, policies, and ethics about the repatriation of collections shape ideas about collections?

Museums going out of business: When a museum needs to close for financial or other reasons, what’s the best way to do that? Are there good case studies and legal and financial models?

The future of museum collections: How might museums think about collecting the ephemeral, or collecting for “impermanent” collections. What new strategies should museums consider for short-term collecting? How might digitization and scanning shape ideas about the permanence of collections?

Papers from the Colloquium may be published as a special issue of the Museum History Journal.

If you’d like to present at the conference, please send an abstract of about 250 words and a brief CV to Steven Lubar, lubar [at] brown.edu. Deadline for submission of paper proposals is September 15, 2014.

Steven Lubar

Department of American Studies

John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage

lubar [at] brown.edu

Images:

1. Gallery of classical antiquities, Brown University, about 1893. No longer in existence. Collections apparently lost. Courtesy Brown University archives.
2. The Jenks Museum at Brown University, about 1890. Only about 10 percent of the collections once in the Jenks Museum survive, and none of the natural history specimens. Courtesy Brown University Archives.

The Curious Afterlife of Human Teeth and Cockscombs at the Hunterian Museum : Guest post by Editor Charlie Mounter

Friend of Morbid Anatomy--and editor of my recent book on Walter Potter with Dr Pat Morris--Charlie Mounter--just sent in the following guest post about one of the most infamous specimens at the London Hunterian museum--a cross-section of the head of a rooster with a human tooth surgically inserted--and its curious afterlife.

The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields sparkles with dramatically-lit specimen jars, mostly collected by John Hunter (1728–1793; top image), a surgeon and anatomist.

John Hunter was the first surgeon to produce an anatomically accurate and scientific work of dentistry. He didn’t know about blood types and the intricacies of donor acceptance or rejection, but he did successfully graft cockerels’ own spurs onto their combs (‘an old and well-known experiment’), and graft their testes into their stomachs. His methods and principles paved the way for modern transplantation techniques.

At the back of the Hunterian Museum’s crystal gallery on the ground floor (2nd image down), you can see the jar of Hunter’s experimental dental graft of a human canine tooth embedded into a cockerel’s cockscomb (third image down).

Hunter believed that the tooth had taken and grown a blood supply; he preserved the bisected comb as a rare example of a successful transplant.

An embroidered emblem of this surreal arrangement (fourth and fifth image down) is still worn on the ceremonial gowns of the Dean and board of the Faculty of Dental Surgeons.

Today, pigs’ heart valves are routinely inserted into human hearts, pluripotent stem cells have been programmed to grow human ears on the backs of mice and we’re well on our way to being able to produce organs by 3D printing. Cross-species techniques look likely to become increasingly important for our large populations, while 3D printing might allow us to synthesize animal tissues for testing and research. John Hunter’s somewhat Frankensteinian experiments led to real medical progress.

The story of John Hunter’s life and work can be read in Wendy Moore’s brilliant biography, The Knife Man (Little, Brown; bottom image).

Thanks to Hayley Kruger, Acting Head of Learning and Access at the Hunterian in London, and to the Faculty of Dental Surgeons at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Images:

1. John Hunter (1728–1793), Surgeon and Anatomist, by Joshua Reynolds
2. © Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
3. © Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
4. © Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
5.  Miss Kathryn Harley FDS RCS, wearing her own gown; © Faculty of Dental Surgeons at the Royal College of Surgeons

The Corpse Statue Gate of Sint Olofskapel, Amsterdam : Guest Post by Jantine Zandbergen

When in Amsterdam of late, I stumbled upon the enigmatic and beautiful gate pictured above, but could find little about it in English. Morbid Anatomy reader Jantine Zandbergen found this article in Dutch; her (very kind!) translation of it appears below. You can find out more about Jantine and her work on her website by clicking here. The photograph is my own, and the drawing comes from the original article, which can be viewed here.

Hope for a better life
The ‘Olofskapel’ (‘Olofs chapel’) originated in the 15th century, and is the second oldest church building in Amsterdam. It’s assumed the chapel was build for sailors from Norway, that’s probably why it’s named after the Norwegian king Olav who converted to Christianity among the year 1000. There are other theories about the name of the chapel though, one of them being named after Saint Odulphus, the Brabantian patron saint of dikes (the chapel is located on the ‘Zeedijk’ and ‘Seadike’).

At the end of the 15th century the chapel had been extended several times. A polygonal chapel was attached (‘Jeruzalemkapel’) which supposedly housed a copy of the Holy Grail. The chapel was torn down in 1644.

In 1917 the building lost its religious purpose. Over time it’s been used a cheese market, a food distribution center and an art contact center. The interior was destroyed by a fire in 1966 and the building now houses a conference center.

The cemetery gate
A design drawing of the port (second image down) is included in the book Architectura Moderna ofte Bouwinge van onsen tyt from 1631 which deals with the work of Hendrick de Keyser. In 1620 a cemetery was created on the Westermarkt, on the north and east side of the Westerkerk (‘Westerchurch’). The cemetery didn’t exist for long, and was moved in 1655 to the end of the Bloemgracht, now ‘Tweede Marnixplantsoen’. The gate to the cemetery on the side of the Prinsengracht is now the entrance to the Prinsenhuis next to the church. The southern gate was relocated to the Olofskapel.

Corpse statue
The sandstone statue is placed above the main entrance, it was made by Hendrick de Keyser. The caption ‘Spes Altera Vitae’ means ‘Hope for a better life’. There are other ‘corpse statues’ like this one known by the hand of sculptor Colijn de Nole: they can be found in the Grote Kerk of Vianen and the Eusebiuskerk in Arnhem. The shown corpses (a skeleton or decaying dead body) lays on a woven mat just like the skeleton above the cemetery gate. Hendrick de Keyser also portrayed the late Willem van Oranje on a similar surface, it might have been a common form of hygiene.

Life and Death Contrasted (ca.1770), The Public Domain Review

From one of my very favorite websites, The Public Domain Review via The Wellcome Library:

A striking image from the British engraver and publisher Valentine Green, illustrating the idea that life, with all its frivolity and distractions (symbolized by the romance novel, parlor games, and high society lady in all her finery) is in fact – echoing the sentiment of Ecclesiastes (quoted on the obelisk) – nothing but “vanity”, all lives as they do inevitably ending in death. The subtitle – “an essay on woman” – does, however, raise the question of whether Green is making a further comment on womanhood itself...

To read the full story--and see an additional image--click here.

The Voice that Inspired a Nation: The Dentures of Sir William Churchill (1874-1965) : 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 sixth post from that series follows; you can view all posts in this series by clicking here.

His widely broadcast speeches have become synonymous with the Second World War. But how differently would we remember his famous words if they had been said without Sir Winston Churchill’s infamous lisp?

Churchill was born in 1874, and by the turn of the century was already making a name for himself as a successful military man and politician. In 1900 he was elected to Parliament for Oldham and by 1911 was the First Lord of the Admiralty. In the time before sound recordings were widely available, journalists were quick to point out Churchill’s notable speech impediment, often described as a stutter. His natural lisp became one of his most distinctive features as a speaker which was amplified as radio broadcasts became more prevalent.

When it came to having dentures made for the great man, Churchill entrusted the dental technician Derek Cudlipp to make and repair several sets. Most dentures are made so the metal plate adheres closely to the palate- a feature which would have helped to reduce lisping. However, as Churchill famously said, ‘My impediment is no hindrance.’ Well aware of the power of his recognizable voice, Churchill consulted his dentist Wilfred Fish to come up with a solution. Cudlipp and Fish worked to craft dentures which would leave a gap between the plate and the roof of the mouth, thus retaining Churchill’s distinctive speaking style.

These dentures, worn by Churchill around 1941, have a gold base with platinum clasps and mineral teeth. While this set appears to be in good condition, Churchill reportedly threw his dentures at his staff when frustrated or angry. 

Images:

1. Winston Churchill in Downing Street, June 1943. Wikicommons via the Imperial War Museum.
2. Skeletal partial upper denture, with gold base, platinum clasps and mineral teeth, made for and worn by Winston Churchill, c. 1941. RCSOM/K 20.9. Copyright the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Edward Gorey Documentary Needs Your Help : A Plea From Morbid Anatomy Provocateur in Residence Mark Dery

Mark Dery--Morbid Anatomy Provocateur in Residence and author of a forthcoming biography of Edward Gorey--has brought to our attention a Kickstarter project beyond worthy of our support, namely a new documentary on that inimitable artist/writer/eccentric Edward Gorey. Below is a characteristically brilliant guest post by Mr. Dery about the project, which you can support by clicking here, and learn more about in the Kickstarter video above. Also: word is that The Morbid Anatomy Museum might well be hosting a special screening for the film when completed, so stay tuned for more on that as it develops! And, if you love Edward Gorey as we do, please consider supporting this important and excellent project!

He shrank from the word “macabre,” routinely applied to his art and writing, yet the first novels he read, after teaching himself to read at the age of three, were of course Frankenstein and Dracula. He kept a mummy’s head in his New York apartment, the accidental discovery of which, while he was out, resulted in him being called down to the police station for a gentlemanly colloquy on suspicion of murder. He wrote stories about the infanticidal Moors Murderers and little innocents sacrificed to Insect Gods. He penned a deadpan parody of Edwardian pornography in which Gerald, infamously, “did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan.” He was an ardent collector of post-mortem daguerreotypes—specifically, Victorian photos of dead babies, which he pressed a reluctant friend into procuring, surreptitiously, at postcard shows, back when such tastes were outré. An imperishable aesthete, he loved the proto-Surrealist melodramas of the silent-movie director Feuillade and the waspish wit of the screamingly gay Victorian novelist Ronald Firbank, yet was also an unapologetic fan of straight-to-video horror movies like Suture and insisted with a perfectly straight face that William Shatner was one of the great thespians of our age. Though endlessly tolerant of the black-clad fans who loitered palely on his doorstep, he is undoubtedly shoulder-rolling in his grave at his reputation, in some quarters, as the genial, bearded Granddaddy of the Goths—or would be, if he were buried, which he isn’t, having been cremated and scattered on Cape Cod, though he does have a disappointingly perfunctory grave marker—no urns, weeping willows, or lachrymose angels—in the family plot in Ohio, of all unimaginably perverse places.

He is, of course, Edward Gorey, legendary eccentric and the author and illustrator of such poisonous little morsels of black-comic camp as The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Pious Infant.

And he needs your help.

Christopher Seufert, a Cape Cod-based photographer and documentary filmmaker who is sitting on top of an incredible trove of rare, never-before-seen video footage of the reclusive, brilliant Gorey, has launched a Kickstarter bid for his Edward Gorey Documentary Project, here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisseufert/the-edward-gorey-documentary-project.

Seufert’s interviews with Gorey, and his cinema-verite footage of Gorey being Gorey, are fabulous stuff, but you, along with other, far less deserving souls, will never see them if Seufert doesn’t make his modest funding goal, which is why I’m fervently hoping you’ll consider making a rattling sound in his Kickstarter cup.

In the course of interviewing Seufert for the Gorey biography I’m writing for Little, Brown, I’ve gotten a glimpse of Seufert’s Gorey archives, and can say with unfeigned enthusiasm that they constitute a cabinet of droll, delightful curiosities: Gorey herding his many cats (and conversing with them all the while) around a house overstuffed with finials and sugar skulls and teetering heaps of books; Gorey rehearsing puppet plays with his troupe the Theatricule Stoique; Gorey eating at and holding forth at the local cafe where he breakfasted and lunched every day; Gorey musing, idly, about the myriad subjects his restless, polymathic mind ranged over, from the grade-Z horror films he loved to Victorian nonsense verse to his own, utterly sui generis art.

If you are a person who has ever had a fantod stuffed and preserved under glass, or who owns a well-thumbed copy of the eleventh volume of The Encyclopedia of Unimaginable Customs, or who applauded when the infant’s trajectory passed him over the rectory/ and into a lily-choked pond, please consider donating to the Edward Gorey Documentary Project. Time flies! Think of the children. Specifically, of Fanny, sucked dry by a leech. And Titus, who flew into bits. And my personal favorite, Neville, who died of ennui. Like you, it has always been my life’s dream to die of ennui, but not before the Edward Gorey Documentary https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisseufert/the-edward-gorey-documentary-project is fully funded. “Remember the widows and orphans,” as Edward admonished, in the little sign he drew for the Yarmouth Port café he frequented.

Morbidly, Mark Dery
(Fellow devotee of the Morbid Anatomy Museum and author of the forthcoming Doubtful Guest: The Mysterious Mind and Legendary Life of Edward Gorey)

Image via Flavorwire.